This solid thriller offers much to appeal to lovers of the genre: exotic locations, masses of convincing detail, gadgets galore, and a ruthless yet anguished professional assassin, John Rain. There are several good action set-pieces, and various villains meet suitably sticky ends. Despite all this, I found the book surprisingly easy to put down: its all a bit wordy, with many lengthy discussions between hard-man Rain and some rather stereotypical secondary characters, and no real sense of tension drawing you into the narrative.