The Killer Collective

By: Barry Eisler

Narrated by: Barry Eisler

Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

An Amazon Charts, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal bestseller.

A fast-paced, page-turning novel of betrayal, vengeance, and depraved secrets in high places from the New York Times bestselling author of the John Rain and Livia Lone series.

When a joint FBI-Seattle Police investigation of an international child pornography ring gets too close to certain powerful people, sex-crimes detective Livia Lone becomes the target of a hit that barely goes awry - a hit that had been offered to John Rain, a retired specialist in "natural causes."

Suspecting the FBI itself was behind the attack, Livia reaches out to former Marine sniper Dox. Together, they assemble an ad hoc group to identify and neutralize the threat. There’s Rain. Rain’s estranged lover, Mossad agent and honeytrap specialist Delilah. And black ops soldiers Ben Treven and Daniel Larison, along with their former commander, SpecOps legend Colonel Scot "Hort" Horton.

Moving from Japan to Seattle to DC to Paris, the group fights a series of interlocking conspiracies, each edging closer and closer to the highest levels of the US government.

With uncertain loyalties, conflicting agendas, and smoldering romantic entanglements, these operators will have a hard time forming a team. But in a match as uneven as this one, a collective of killers might be even better.

©2019 Barry Eisler. (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“In this crackling-good thriller from bestseller Eisler, Seattle PD sex crimes detective Livia Lone, assassin John Rain, and former Marine sniper Dox form a testy alliance to combat a vile conspiracy involving corrupt and toxic government agencies…The feisty interplay among these killer elites is as irresistible as if one combined the Justice League with the Avengers, swapping out the superhero uniforms for cutting-edge weaponry and scintillating spycraft. By the satisfying conclusion, the world has been scrubbed a bit cleaner of perfidy. This is delightfully brutal fun.” (Publishers Weekly)

Could not put this down...

Barry Eisner writes some of the best espionage books out today and gets the least amount of credit. Add to this that he narrates his own books amazingly well and this book should be a winner!
I'm his newest book, Eisler brings characters from both of his series together for a fun, fast paced action packed thrill of a ride.

When Livia Lone comes across an international child pornography ring she must include the FBI in her investigation. Shorty after their involvement two people try to assassinate her. She's able to kill them and then calls her friend Dox. She had previously met him on Thailand.
When Dox contacts his old friend John Rain, he finds out that Rain had been offered the assassination job but had turned it down. He was now working with two other people from previous books. For anyone who has read the DETACHMENT all the characters will be familiar. Add John's old lover Delilah and you have a killer crew to go after this child pornography ring who seem to have bigger things on their minds than just children.
This book has my HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION!
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Wow.

I don't generally write reviews for this type of book since I don't see how my review can add anything to the hundreds that have already been written, but sometimes a book is so well or so poorly written and narrated that it demands a review. This book is one of those so well written that I feel I must add my voice to the reviews.

I had only read one previous Barry Eisler book before, a John Rain novella which I did not much enjoy, so this was a leap of faith for me, aided by it being on sale. I was attracted by both the plot and the intermix of all of the characters involved, and it was that mix that made this book so enjoyable for me. The plot is interesting and, as with books of this type, the process of following the threads as more and more information is found made the book intensely interesting. Added to that is the constant tension between the main characters. The group of killers, John Rain, Dox, Larison, Horton, Lone and Treven are all interesting in themselves, but I could almost feel the electricity between them as they both trusted and distrusted some of the others. Every chapter fairly crackled with tension since I had no idea where things would go.

The resolution of the mystery was completely satisfying and I found the characters sufficiently engaging to decide to buy at least one more book of this type by Barry Eisler. I do not know that I will buy any John Rain books as my experience with the one I bought was a bit disappointing but I will buy another involving these multiple characters. This Is a great book and Mr Eisler narrated it perfectly. 5 stars all around.

All of Eisler's key characters together

John Rain, Livia Lone, Ben Treven, and Dox are all together for the first time. Dox, who appears in several Rain novels, is the only one without his own series, yet he is one of the most interesting of Eisler's characters. Rain even brings in ex-Mossad agent and his long time lover Delilah in to kelp. But in the end THE KILLER COLLECTIVE is a novel of the Livia Lone series with the others being supporting characters. She is a Seattle sex crimes cop with a tragic background who gets justice either in her police role or as a vigilante when that is impossible. In this novel she calls on her friend Dox for help and Dox brings in John Rain and others. Some US Secret Service agents with help from politicians are running a child sex trade ring that Livia is determined to stop by any means necessary. I recommend this novel to those who like espionage thrillers.

Barry Eisler has been doing all of his audio book narrations for the last eight years He may be an even better narrator than he is an author. Since Eisler moved from traditional publishing to self publishing in 2011 his novels in ebook and audio format are very inexpensive. If an audio book listener buys of borrows the Kindle versions of his novels the audio versions sell for $1.99 each. Kindle readers and Audible listeners owe Eisler a vote of appreciation for the pricing of his superb novels.

Disappointing at best...

How do you ruin a great action character? Give him a love interest. Here we have two too many. The best written romance in all of Eisler’s work is the eluded to but unexplored life of the “Angel of Death”. The result here is some very good action scenes, absolutely no mystery or surprises anywhere and pages upon pages of picking relational scabs. There is one other problem with a book of this scope. The author seems unsure where to focus the story. Write the Seattle cop story or the John Rain story but this was way too many people and far too many personalities for a single work. It killed some time but that was all.

Good story, poor audio

There's no excuse for the breakdown of the audio starting just short of 5 hours remaining, and intermittent through the end of the book. I have really enjoyed the Eisler series, his characters, and this story in particular. I disagree with others who have criticized his narration - I thought it was quite good. But, don't sell me a flawed audio production. Others have reported this, so fix it! I will return the book since I cannot share it with my spouse in the condition it is.

Everything was great, poor production

I got wrapped up in this story quickly, and I loved the plot line and characters in the story. I was also very impressed that the author narrated this story, and he did quite well.

The only negative of this production, was the production itself. Being as Eisler is an author and not a voice actor, probably once every two chapters, you could hear a smacking of the lips or something similar, in between lines. It was quite loud and noticeable. And once you hear it for the first time, you hear every succeeding once. It became incredibly distracting over the course of the story. It would have been SO easy to take those out, but they were left in, which is the reason I only gave this story 4-stars.

Good story, need to hire a narrator next time hoss.

Mr. Eislers “southern accent” is ridiculous, even distracting at times. I have lived my entire life in the south and it honestly pissed me off a little to hear. The story was ok, no complaints, but nothing special either. Hire a narrator next time, comprende?

Didn’t take me long

Mr. Eisler’s stories are so good its kind of disappointing as I get thru them too fast. The chemistry between the characters remains the best part. Dox still deserves a standalone and hopefully someday we will get to see whos better at Judo (Rain or Livia)!!

slow story

Not so good. it was very slow and I had to just stop at some time.. a book needs to keep me interested or I'm out
This was an out.

not the best

I probably listened to nearly 500 books on Audible and this is the second book I could not finish. I was difficult to follow plot and sort out the characters. I have read and listened to previous book by Barry Eisler and this one was a disappointment.

So much fun

I finished this book in one day, It is so much fun. I have read pretty much all of Barry Eislers books and this is possibly my favourite one so far, along with the detachment. It moves at a terrific pace and I really love the interplay between the characters, especially Dox and Larison. I Hope that we get more books with all the characters in in the future.

Definitely middle of the road

It's not bad it's not great, that's about the best I could say... The Female leads feel like token roles and the the one with a real back story is glazed over

Seemed to loose it's way

Got off to a great start, I loved the characters and the narration was excellent. I just lost interest at the mid point...

Absolutely brilliant as always.

Barry Eisler you beauty!
Really enjoying the Rain series, eagerly awaiting your next novel!

good story

I have read the other books in this series this one did not captivate me as much as they did did it was a good story but a bit predictable but overall all I gave it 5 Stars