I finished reading Fault Line by Barry Eisler ($16.50 @ Amazon) a few weeks ago. I’ve been a fan for a while, reading a set of his book about Japanese-American assassin John Rain who specializes in making the assassinations look natural (including one by turning the victims pacemaker down to zero and another where he induces a bicycle crash at night).

But back to the book. This is a new direction, or at least new characters, those being two brothers. Brother #1 is a lawyer and gets involved with the upcoming IPO of some encryption software when things start to happen, including the death of his client. Things continue to happen and he calls for help from his estranged brother in the military, who it turns out possesses the exact skills needed to deal with the problem.

I enjoyed the book, but it did feel forced in places. The estrangement felt over and under done at times, and the nature of the bad guys turned out to be all too convenient – if not predictable in the beginning. That said, start with Rain Fall and work your way forward. For me, one of the best parts of reading is discovering a new author and enjoying the journey. He has a web site and blog at http://www.barryeisler.com/.