Barry Eisler


Barry Mark Eisler is a best-selling American novelist. He is the author of two thriller series, the first featuring anti-hero John Rain, a half-Japanese, half-American former soldier turned freelance assassin, and a second featuring black ops soldier Ben Treven. Eisler also writes about politics and language on his blog Heart of the Matter, and at the blogs CHUD, Firedoglake, The Huffington Post, MichaelMoore.com, The Smirking Chimp, and Truthout.

Early life

Eisler was born in New Jersey, his father was a wholesale office supplier, and his mother an environmental activist. Eisler graduated from Cornell Law School in 1989.

Early career

After completing law school, Eisler joined the CIA, where he trained for three years afterward and held a covert position with the Directorate of Operations. In 1992, he resigned and joined the law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges. In 1994, he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to work for the firm's technology licensing division, then left to work in Japan for Matsushita.
In 1999, he returned to the Bay Area to join a startup.
In 2003, he started writing full-time, when he sold the rights to his debut novel, Rain Fall, the first of his series featuring John Rain.

Self-publishing

Eisler made news in March 2011 when he walked away from a reported half million dollar advance from St. Martin's Press in order to go the self-publishing route pioneered by his colleague Joe Konrath and others. He then took a six-figure deal to publish the seventh John Rain novel, The Detachment, under Amazon Publishing's Thomas & Mercer mystery imprint.

Awards

Eisler's novel Rain Fall won the 2005 Barry Award for Best Thriller and The Gumshoe Award. Fault Line reached Number 18 on The New York Times Hardcover Bestseller List.

John Rain

  1. Graveyard of Memories
  2. Zero Sum
  3. A Clean Kill in Tokyo, previously published as Rain Fall
  4. A Lonely Resurrection, previously published as Hard Rain in the US and Blood from Blood in the UK
  5. Winner Take All, previously published as Rain Storm in the US and Choke Point in the UK
  6. Redemption Games, previously published as Killing Rain in the US and One Last Kill in the UK
  7. Extremis, previously published as The Last Assassin
  8. The Killer Ascendant, previously published as Requiem for an Assassin
  9. "Paris is a Bitch", short story
  10. The Detachment
  11. "Decisions, Decisions"
  12. "The Khmer Kill", short story
  13. "London Twist", novella
  14. The Killer Collective

    Ben Treven

  15. Fault Line
  16. Inside Out
  17. "The Lost Coast", short story
  18. The Detachment

    Livia Lone

  19. Livia Lone
  20. The Night Trade
  21. The Killer Collective
  22. All the Devils

    Stand alone novel

In April 2009, Sony Pictures Japan released a mostly Japanese language film version of Rain Fall starring Shiina Kippei as Rain and Gary Oldman as Rain's nemesis, CIA Station Chief William Holtzer.
In August 2014, Slingshot Global Media announced the launch of a new TV mini-series, Rain, based on the book. Keanu Reeves will portray the iconic character as well as serve as the executive producer alongside Eisler, Chad Stahelski, and David Leitch. The scriptwriter is yet to be decided upon.

Personal life

Eisler earned a black belt at the Kodokan International Judo Center and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is married to literary agent Laura Rennert, who represents his work. They have one daughter.