'I insist on only a few questions. Is the target a man? I don't work against women or children. Have you retained anyone else to solve this problem? Is the target a principal? I am no longer samurai, either... I am a realist now' John Rain, jazz fan, single malt connoisseur and honorable assassin, is dragged out of retirement first by blackmail and then by revenge. Featuring many of the characters so vividly brought to life in Rain Fall, Barry Eisler takes us on another journey into a world of spooks, double-crosses and elaborately executed 'terminations'. Stylish, page-turning and authentic, Barry Eisler is in the front rank of thriller writing.
Meet John Rain. Assassin. He follows his own code - he needs no one, trusts no one - until betrayal transforms him from hunter into hunted and loner into loyal friend. Haunted by the past, Rain kills to order and leaves no trace but the death at his hand of an old man has unforseen complications - and soon Rain is trying to protect not just his carefully preserved anonymity but his own life and those of the people he cares for. A stunning, page-turning reinvention of the hitman thriller, Rain Fall marks the introduction of a compelling new series character and major new thriller writing career.
Young Rue Cassels of the Cycler Compact- a civilisation based around remote brown dwarf stars - is running for her life from her bullying brother, Jentry. Fleeing in a single person spacecraft, she spots a distant, approaching object, and stakes a legal claim to it. It is not the valuable comet she has hoped for, but something even more wonderful, a billion year-old alien starship. Permanence is the story of Rue's quest to visit and claim this ship and its treasures, set against a backdrop of interstellar intrigue and warring empires.
In March 2002, U.S. forces moved into the Shahikot Mountains, hoping to trap and eliminate a substantial number of Al Qaeda fighters. They were handicapped almost fatally by their own lack of numbers, substandard logistics support, the highest altitudes at which Americans had ever fought, and the frigid weather of the mountains.
In this fast-paced history, Kirkpatrick describes the efforts of German-born Walter Horn, a U.S. Army first lieutenant and art historian, to locate the missing crown, orb, scepter, imperial sword, and ceremonial sword of the Holy Roman Empire in Europe at the end of WWII. The objects, along with the Holy Lance of Longinus and many other artifacts, had been stolen by the Nazis from Austria after the Anschluss in 1938 and, conceivably, could have been used by Nazis to motivate Germans in the creation of a Fourth Reich.
