When John finds out that he has an infant son living in New York he knows that he must see him. But demons from his past are anticipating John’s moves and have staked out the mother and baby. John, with the help of his old sniper pal Dox, hatches a plan to sneak past the surveillance and visit his son for the first time. He gets in okay and after a few tense moments dealing with his old lover he is allowed to hold his son in his arms and immediately realizes the importance of this young child’s being. But John hangs around a little too long and eventually has a face to face encounter with the agent of his old nemesis Yamaoto, a Japanese gangster who has vowed to kill John Rain.

John resorts to his training and reflexes and kills the spy and then goes after his immediate boss and kills him too, making it look like an internal problem. But John knows that Yamaoto won’t be fooled for long and to protect his defenseless son he must go to Tokyo and take out Yamaoto on his own turf.

Along with his friend Dox and John's current lover, a beautiful Mossad agent named Delilah, Rain lands in Japan with a complex plan that calls for split-second military type precision and highly skilled players. He’s well equipped for the task.

John’s mentor Tatsu, an agent for the Japanese FBI, is dying of cancer and his final wish is for the demise of the gangster Yamaoto. And so Tatsu, from his deathbed, calls in all of his debts and gathers all of his resources to keep John ahead of the game and help successfully rid the world of the scourge Yamaoto.

This is an amazingly well told and exciting story. I was impressed with Barry Eisler’s well paced sense of logic and order. He has the ability to tell a brutal story with the impact of a sledgehammer yet sound almost poetic when the scene calls for benevolence. Although John Rain has said he’s leaving the profession, Eisler left the door for his return open just a crack. I sure hope he comes back.