Barry Mark Eisler (born 1964) is an American novelist. He is the author of three thriller series, the first featuring anti-hero John Rain, a half-Japanese, half-American former soldier turned freelance assassin, a second featuring black ops soldier Ben Treven, and his most recent centered on Seattle detective Livia Lone. 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.

Early life

Eisler was born in New Jersey, his father was a wholesale office supplier, and his mother an environmental activist. Eisler is Jewish and graduated from Cornell Law School in 1989.

Early career

After completing law school, Eisler joined the CIA, where he trained for three years afterward and held a covert position with the Directorate of Operations. In 1992, he resigned and joined the law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges. In 1994, he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to work for the firm's technology licensing division, then left to work in Japan for Matsushita. In 1999, he returned to the Bay Area to join a startup. In 2003, he started writing full-time, when he sold the rights to his debut novel, Rain Fall, the first of his series featuring John Rain.

Self-publishing

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 J. A. Konrath and others. He then took a six-figure deal to publish the seventh John Rain novel, The Detachment (2011), under Amazon Publishing's Thomas & Mercer mystery imprint.

Awards

Eisler's novel Rain Fall won the 2005 Barry Award for Best Thriller and The Gumshoe Award. Fault Line reached Number 18 on The New York Times Hardcover Fiction Best Seller list.

John Rain

Ben Treven

Livia Lone

Marvin Manus

Dox

Essays

Screen adaptations

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. In August 2014, Slingshot Global Media announced its intention to produce a miniseries, Rain, based on the book. At that time, Keanu Reeves was attached to portray the character as well as serve as the executive producer alongside Eisler, Chad Stahelski, and David Leitch. The scriptwriter had not been decided upon at that time. As of October 2023, nearly a decade later, the concept is still shown as "in development" on Eisler's IMDb page.

Personal life

Eisler earned a black belt at the Kodokan International Judo Center and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is married to literary agent Laura Rennert, who represents his work. They have one daughter.