Zero Sum

[cornerofmadness]

Zero Sum by Barry Eisler

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I'll be honest if I had known this was #9 in a series and about a mercenary/assassin I'd not have picked this up. As it was, I needed a Z for an alphabet challenge and I was on vacation when I got it from a library sale thinking it was suspense, which okay it was. I don't know the character but I'm not sure I needed to since it was easy enough to follow. It wasn't badly written even if it was so not my subject matter.

Rain is back in Tokyo and in contact with one of his former mentors (Rain is ex military and a merc fresh from the Philippines. He's also half Japanese). This mentor gets him embroiled in an assassination plot being run by a half Japanese half Russian psychopath gang leader. Kill the government minister Sugimoto or they'll kill him and his friend.

Rain has other plans especially after meeting the man's wife, the Italian art director, Maria and falling for her. With help from his police detective friend, Rain wants to do an end run around Victor, keep people alive and find out who is really behind this hit.

Well Rain does kill less people than John Wick so I guess that's something. The beginning chapter put me in mind of the eye rolling kill each other for a job interview thing from Batman: Dark Knight (because how many times have we seen this now?) and I almost bailed then. But overall, it's not a bad story if you like that kind of action adventure. It's not really for me but I didn't think it was bad.



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