{"id":6258,"date":"2019-03-20T15:30:46","date_gmt":"2019-03-20T19:30:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/?p=6258"},"modified":"2019-03-20T15:32:17","modified_gmt":"2019-03-20T19:32:17","slug":"book-review-the-killer-collective-by-barry-eisler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/book-review-the-killer-collective-by-barry-eisler\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: The Killer Collective by Barry Eisler"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Killer Collective, <\/em>by Barry Eisler<\/p>\n

Thomas & Mercer, 2019<\/p>\n

ISBN: 978-1-5039-0426-2<\/p>\n

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook, MP3 CD<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you are looking for a good action story populated by ex-Special Forces people who destroy anyone and everything in their way, you\u2019ve come to the right place.\u00a0 Author Barry Eisler has already written two series of books, one starring ex-Green Beret\/CIA spook John Rain, and the other focused on hard-nosed Seattle cop Livia Lone, who specializes in investigating brutal sex crimes. (think Law & Order: SVU)\u00a0 This is the first time he has merged both characters into the same book.\u00a0 Note: if you have never read any of the other books (as I have not) you can still read The Killer Collective <\/em>as a stand-alone novel and understand the story.\u00a0 However, there are frequent references to the plots of other novels in the series.\u00a0 The author does throw in enough that you can get the general gist of how the characters know each other, but your overall understanding of the characters and why they act the way they do would probably be enhanced if you had read the other books.<\/p>\n

The plot: Detective Livia Lone and two other investigators are busy tracking down the members of a online kiddie-porn ring, and find that six of its members also happen to be members of the U.S. Secret Service.\u00a0 Naturally, the government won\u2019t admit such a thing, so the FBI shuts down her investigation, and she quickly becomes a target of mercenary killers bent on eliminating anyone involved with the investigation.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, John Rain, now an assassin for hire, has his own set of problems with people who want him dead– people with a lot of money and a lot of firepower.\u00a0 Through individuals known to both Lone and Rain, the separate plot threads tie together in the first third of the book.\u00a0 The rest is about survival and making those who are responsible pay.\u00a0 This review is simplifying the plot a bit, so as not to give away too much.\u00a0 It\u2019s actually a good deal more complex.<\/p>\n

Each chapter is written from the point of view of one of the characters, and not just that of Lone or Rain: at least four other characters get a turn or two.\u00a0 Even more unusual, all of them are written from the third person perspective except John Rain\u2019s, which are written from the first person.\u00a0 Surprisingly, it isn\u2019t confusing, and really helps the story, as the characters, despite all being trained killers, are quite unique.\u00a0 Carl Dox is one of the most memorable personalities, as he injects some needed humor and emotion, keeping the \u2018collective\u2019 members from being too similar.\u00a0 The story itself is excellent, and rarely moves in a straight line: there are plenty of twists and turns.\u00a0\u00a0 There is a lot of intrigue, and it\u2019s livened up because the members of Rain\u2019s collective are not<\/em> a group completely united behind a cause.\u00a0\u00a0 Some of them basically despise each other because they have been on opposite sides in previous special operations in other books.\u00a0 Half the fun is seeing how they struggle to even tolerate each other, despite needing to work together to survive.\u00a0 How do you work with someone you previously tried to kill?<\/p>\n

The action itself is first rate– the author clearly knows his stuff.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t just your standard “shoot all bad guys in an insanely bloody firefight”\u00a0 book, there is a lot of meticulous planning by the characters that goes into each action sequence.\u00a0 No one just rushes in, guns blazing.\u00a0 All the confrontations are planned out down to the tiniest detail by Rain and his cohorts, who don\u2019t want to leave anything to chance.\u00a0 Just setting up a meeting to talk to someone who can provide information requires a lot of work, in order to prevent coming out on the wrong end of a double-cross.\u00a0\u00a0 The reader will be amazed at the level of detail, and it all sounds like it came out of actual operations run by real-life special agents.\u00a0 The author used to work for the CIA, and he\u2019s clearly drawing on his background.\u00a0 Pulling off the confrontations in this book and making them seem true to life would be tough for most authors, but Eisler does it with ease.\u00a0 There was one time when the action got so detailed in terms of character movement that it did get a bit confusing, but that can be easily overlooked, since everything else was so well done.\u00a0 For pure excitement that holds your interest, this is close to seamless.<\/p>\n

If you like stories with a plot like the intertwined coils of a serpent and characters that are larger than life in terms of their ability, but still human in terms of their actions, this book should not be missed.\u00a0 It should be in the fiction section of every library.\u00a0 Highly recommended.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Contains:\u00a0 violence, profanity<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Killer Collective, by Barry Eisler Thomas & Mercer, 2019 ISBN: 978-1-5039-0426-2 Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook, MP3 CD   If you are looking for a good action story populated by ex-Special Forces people who destroy anyone and everything in their way, you\u2019ve come to the right place.\u00a0 Author Barry Eisler has already written<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3705,450,3703,3702,3704,3706,642],"class_list":["post-6258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-barry-eisler","tag-crime-fiction","tag-john-rain","tag-livia-lone","tag-political-thrillers","tag-the-killer-collective","tag-thrillers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6258"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6336,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6258\/revisions\/6336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}