Barry Eisler Books in Order

Barry Eisler is an American thriller author best known for the John Rain series, which follow a half-Japanese, half-American assassin who specializes in making deaths look natural. He also writes the Ben Treven, Livia Lone, Dox, Delilah, Larison, and Manus series, which start separately and later connect into one universe.

Barry Eisler spent three years in a covert position with the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, and later worked as a technology lawyer and startup executive in Silicon Valley and Japan. He also got a black belt at the Kodokan Judo Institute in Tokyo. That background heavily influences his books with the themes of surveillance, counter-surveillance, fight scenes, tradecraft, and political pressure.

This page lists all Barry Eisler books in order, including the John Rain series, Ben Treven series, Livia Lone series, Dox novel, related short fiction, standalone novels, and non-fiction books.

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How the Barry Eisler Series Connect

Each Barry Eisler series start separately, but they eventually connect at different points. John Rain begins as the main character, then Ben Treven, Daniel Larison, Dox, Delilah, Livia Lone, and Marvin Manus become part of the same wider universe.

The book that creates the first crossover is The Detachment, which brings John Rain into the Ben Treven side of the series. After that, The Killer Collective is the book that brings all together: Livia Lone is targeted, Dox gets involved, and Rain, Delilah, Ben Treven, Daniel Larison, and Colonel Hort Horton are getting into the same fight.

The Chaos Kind continues that connected-team setup. It brings back John Rain, Livia Lone, Dox, Delilah, Larison, and Manus, so it’s best to read after The Killer Collective. Each series can be read independently, but the character relationships make more sense if you know the separate series first.

John Rain Series (Books in Order)

The John Rain series follows half-Japanese, half-American assassin John Rain, a former soldier who works mostly in Japan and is very good at making his kills look like natural deaths. Rain is a very careful, suspicious person, who not only hides his emotions but also seems to have none. Due to his dangerous work, he is always involved with the deep intelligence world.

Rain changes over time, and the people around him become more important as the books continue. The early books show him as individual assassin, but in the later books, the other series connect him with Dox, Delilah, Ben Treven, Livia Lone, and the larger group of operators that are active around him. Several John Rain books were later republished under new title. The old titles are in brackets below.

1. A Clean Kill In Tokyo, 2003 (also titled Rain Fall)
2. A Lonely Resurrection, 2004 (also titled Hard Rain)
3. Winner Take All, 2005 (also titled Rain Storm)
4. Redemption Games, 2006 (also titled Killing Rain)
5. Extremis, 2007 (also titled The Last Assassin)
6. The Killer Ascendant, 2008 (also titled Requiem for an Assassin)
7. Paris Is A Bitch, 2011
8. The Detachment, 2011
9. Graveyard of Memories, 2014
10. Zero Sum, 2017
11. The Killer Collective, 2019
12. The Chaos Kind, 2021

Reading notes:

• Graveyard of Memories and Zero Sum are John Rain prequels set before A Clean Kill in Tokyo, but they were published later.
• New readers can start with A Clean Kill in Tokyo for publication order, or with Graveyard of Memories for internal chronology.
• Paris Is a Bitch is a Rain/Delilah short story and it sits between The Killer Ascendant and The Detachment.
• The Detachment is also a Ben Treven crossover.
• The Killer Collective and The Chaos Kind are shared-universe books and are best read after learning more about John Rain and Livia Lone first.

Ben Treven Series (Books in Order)

The Ben Treven series follows black-ops soldier Ben Treven working in a tough world full of secret missions and political pressure, where powerful people use national security rules to get richer and more powerful. The first two books, Fault Line and Inside Out, are strictly Ben Treven, and the next books start crossing into the John Rain series starting with The Detachment, which brings Ben Treven, Daniel Larison, Colonel Hort Horton, Dox, and John Rain into the same operation.

1. Fault Line, 2009
2. Inside Out, 2010
3. The Detachment, 2011
4. The Killer Collective, 2019

Livia Lone Series (Books in Order)

The Livia Lone series follows Seattle sex-crimes detective Livia Lone, who was trafficked as a child, and because of that, she made her life mission to investigates crimes against women and children. Her cases are personal with some revenge elements, but because Livia works inside the police system, she is limited in what she wants to do based on what the system can do.

The first two books, Livia Lone and The Night Trade, introduce Livia’s background, her work, and her connection with Dox. After that, The Killer Collective brings her into the John Rain universe, and The Chaos Kind continues the shared-team setup.

1. Livia Lone, 2016
2. The Night Trade, 2018
3. The Killer Collective, 2019
4. All The Devils, 2019
5. The Chaos Kind, 2021

Dox Series (Books in Order)

The Dox series currently has one book, Amok, in which Dox becomes the character of his own story. Dox is John Rain’s friend and a former Marine sniper, but Amok goes back to 1991, when he is younger, newly back in Texas, and pulled toward a secret war in Southeast Asia. Because Dox appears several series in the Barry Eisler universe, Amok can be read either as its own Dox story or as background for a character already known from the Rain and Livia Lone books.

1. Amok, 2022

Standalone Novels in Order of Publication

• The God’s Eye View, 2016
• The System, 2025

Novellas and Short Stories

• The Lost Coast, 2011 (Larison short story)
• Paris is a Bitch, 2011 (Rain/Delilah short story)
• The Khmer Kill, 2012 (Dox short story)
• London Twist, 2013 (Delilah novella)

Non-Fiction Books

• The Ass Is A Poor Receptacle For The Head, 2011 (co-authored with J.A. Konrath)
• Be the Monkey, 2011

Barry Eisler Biography

Barry Eisler is an American thriller author whose work includes the John Rain, Ben Treven, Livia Lone, Dox, Delilah, Larison, and Manus books, as well as standalone political and surveillance thrillers.
Official website: barryeisler.com

Barry Eisler was born in the US in 1964. In high school, he took martial arts classes, and later he learned karate, box and judo. He graduated from Cornell Law School in 1989. While in college, he also took writing courses and wrote a column for the school newspaper. He started working for the CIA right after graduation, where he spent three years with the Directorate of Operations before leaving the agency to pursue other interests. He later worked as a technology lawyer and startup executive in Silicon Valley and Japan. While in Japan, he earned a black belt at the Kodokan Judo Institute.

In 1993, while in Japan, Barry Eisler had an idea for a first novel with two men following a third down a local street in Shibuya. That idea, mixed with intelligence work, law, technology, Japan and its martial arts became a big part of his later books, which started with Rain Fall (later republished as A Clean Kill in Tokyo) in 2002. It became the first book in the John Rain series, introducing the half-Japanese, half-American assassin who has the knack of making his kills look like natural deaths. The John Rain books became the author’s main series and eventually they expanded into a whole universe involving Dox, Delilah, Ben Treven, Daniel Larison, Livia Lone, and Marvin Manus.

The Barry Eisler novels have been translated into more than 20 languages, and include #1 bestsellers such as The Detachment, Livia Lone, The Night Trade, and The Killer Collective.. They have won him the Barry Award and Gumshoe Award in the Best Thriller of the Year category.

In 2011, Barry Eisler turned out a major monetary advancement from St. Martin’s Press of half a million dollars and turned to self-publish his next novel. This moment was pretty defining in the indie publishing industry, which was struggling quite a lot at this point. He also bought back the rights to his earlier novels and republished them with new titles under his own publishing name, becoming an indie author.

Barry Eisler Book Adaptations

• Rain Fall – adapted into the feature film Rain Fall (2009)

Barry Eisler Awards and Honors

Awards

• Winner Take All – Barry Award for Best Thriller (2005)
• Winner Take All – Gumshoe Award for Best Thriller (2005)

Nominations and Shortlists

• Extremis – Barry Award for Best Novel (2007)

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