A Thriller Gay Men Can Enjoy

[+ Lucky]

Barry Eisler is the author of several novels centering on the character John Rain, a half-Japanese martial arts pro who finds all of those hidden ways to subdue enemies and save the planet. Testosterone novels is the genre, I believe. Author Stephen Hunter writes stuff like I, Sniper; Brad Thor writes about preventing attacks on America, Vince Flynn has his Mitch Rapp character. To be honest, I like them all.

 

But many of these novels are huge flag wavers, written for folks who want America back, just the way they remember it in the fifties. Gays play little part in them, and usually it is to be referred to as fags or pansies.

 

That doesn't happen in Barry Eisler novels. He wrote several centering on John Rain, and then, when he thought he had exhausted that character, tried to quietly let rain retire. Eisler wrote two new books with new characters, but the reviews weren't as good as for the Rain novels.

 

So, he has written a new novel, The Detachment, with seemingly no eye to making money. I bought it in trade paperback at Amazon for less than $8. It's $5.99 for the Kindle version. And, it's good.

 

Eisler takes Rain and his two new characters, along with Rain's favorite sidekick, and joins them in a defense of America from coup plotters who want to wage false alarm terrorism events to scare the American people. Eisler believes that the government uses fear to make the American people more malleable, and that the constant threat of terrorism is an attempt to gain power against the Constitution for those will protect us.

 

And, his novel is quite gay friendly. None of the foursome believe there is anything wrong with being gay, and a gay subplot of sorts runs through the book to emphasize the point.

 

So, rather than being a right-wing save America type, Eisler is more of a civil libertarian, and, for me, that makes his books even better.

[Kevin Slater]

I thoroughly enjoyed the previous books in the Rain series and based on your recommendation look forward to reading this latest.

 

Kevin Slater

[+ Lucky]

Kevin, I am glad that you like the Rain novels. For someone unfamiliar with them, starting with the latest in the series would not be the best approach. get to know the characters in the earlier novels first, because if you like them, you can wonder what the future holds. Reading the latest book first kind of defeats that.