Barry Eisler

Barry Eisler
Barry Eisler, 2009.
Born	1963
Occupation	Writer
Genres	thriller
www.barryeisler.com

Barry Eisler (born 1964) 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.

Life

After graduating from Cornell Law School in 1989, Eisler joined the CIA, where he held a covert position with the Directorate of Operations.^{[citation needed]} He left the Agency in 1992 and thereafter worked as a technology lawyer and startup executive in Silicon Valley and Japan, earning his black belt at the Kodokan International Judo Center along the way.^{[citation needed]} He started writing full time in 2002 when he sold the rights to his debut novel, Rain Fall, the first of his six-book series featuring John Rain.

Eisler's bestselling thrillers have won the Barry Award and the Gumshoe Award for "Best Thriller of the Year," have been included in numerous "Best Of" lists, and have been translated into nearly twenty languages. 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.

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.^{[citation needed]} The move was considered by many as a turning point in an industry challenged by the growing (and some say thriving) digital indie author market.

Eisler lives in Menlo Park and Tokyo.^{[citation needed]}

Books

John Rain Novels

1. Rain Fall (2002)
2. Hard Rain (2003)
3. Rain Storm (2004)
4. Killing Rain (2005)
5. The Last Assassin (2006)
6. Requiem for an Assassin (2007)
7. The Detachment (2011)

Ben Treven Novels

1. Fault Line (2009)
2. Inside Out (2010)

Short Stories

• Paris is a Bitch (John Rain, 2011)
• The Lost Coast (Larison, 2011)

See also

• Assassinations in fiction

External links

• Barry Eisler Official Website
• Discussion Forum
• Eisler's blog, Heart of the Matter
• Eisler on Truthout
• Article on the John Rain Books by Jeff Riggenbach
• IMDB listing for Rain Fall
• Eisler on GRITtv
• Eisler on The Young Turks