Barry Eisler: Hard Rain

I walked on, through it all. I tried to think of it as a baptism, a new beginning.

Maybe it was. But what a lonely resurrection.

Readers familiar with Roppongi and Akasaka-Mitsuke in Tokyo will note that while several hostess bars and “gentlemen’s clubs” resemble Damask Rose, none is an exact match. Otherwise, the Tokyo and Osaka locales that appear in this book are described as I have found them.

To a remarkable transpacific team of agents and editors: my agents, Nat Sobel and Judith Weber of Sobel Weber Associates in New York and Ken Mori of Tuttle Mori in Tokyo; and my editors, David Highfill of Putnam in New York and Masaru Suzuki of Sony’s Village Books in Tokyo, for all their continued enthusiasm, insight, and support.

To my dear friend and sensei Koichiro Fukasawa of Wasabi-Communications, for continuing to shine a clear light on so much of Japan and the Japanese-and for a great website, too.

To Evan Rosen, M.D., Ph.D., and Peter Zimetbaum, M.D., both of the Harvard medical system, for consistently overcoming their queasiness at my questions about the medical implications of killing techniques, for accepting that the Hippocratic oath might not apply to fiction, and for assisting John Rain in all his endeavors with their considerable knowledge and imaginative faculties.

To Lori Andreini, for her insights into what sophisticated, sexy women like Midori and Naomi wear and how they think, and for helpful comments on the manuscript.

To Ernie Tibaldi, a thirty-one-year veteran agent of the FBI, for generously sharing his extensive surveillance and investigative experiences, for recommending many good books and other sources of information, and for helpful comments on the manuscript.

To Carla Mendes, for furthering my understanding of Brazil and Brazilians and for refining Rain’s attempts at Portuguese.

To Marc “Animal” MacYoung and Peyton Quinn, warrior philosophers both, for their many excellent books and videos on violence and street etiquette. In particular, John Rain owes to MacYoung his philosophy regarding unarmed defenses against the knife, and to Quinn the notion of being “interviewed” as a potential victim.

To Masao Miyamoto, for his horrifyingly humorous book Straitjacket Society , some of whose ideas on the nature of Big Brother in Japan Tatsu has borrowed.

To Lieutenant Colonel Dave Grossman, for his disturbing, original book, On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society , which provided so many insights into the origins and psychology of John Rain.

To Alex Kerr, for his book Dogs and Demons , a meticulously researched and argued account of Japanese corruption and an insensate bureaucracy gone mad, which provided some of the back story for the novel.

To Alan Eisler, Judy Eisler, Dan and Naomi Levin, Matthew Powers, Owen Rennert, David and Shari Rosenblatt, Ted Schlein, Hank Shiffman, and Pete Wenzel, for helpful comments on the manuscript and many valuable suggestions and insights along the way.

To Rick Kennedy and the staff of Tokyo Q , for introducing John Rain to several of the Tokyo bars and restaurants that appear in this book.

To the proprietors of the following establishments, all wonderful places to call one’s office: Bar Satoh in Miyakojima-ku, Osaka; Café Borrone in Menlo Park, California; Las Chicas in Aoyama, Tokyo; the public library in Mountain View, California; These Library Lounge in Nishi Azabu, Tokyo.

Most of all, to a great editor, my fiercest supporter, and my best friend, my wife, Laura.