He may be an anti-hero somewhat but John Rain is one that is very appealing to readers of Barry Eisler’s espionage fiction. Tokyo may be the place which has been at the heart of the series but New York city has also played its part from time to time throughout the novels. Eisler’s leading role creation is half Japanese half American and not your typical protagonist and of course he is far from morally perfect. As with the cafes, bars, hotels and restaurants in previous ‘On the trail of John Rain’ entries these New York city ones also play mere cameo roles in the novels. Nothing particularly exciting or pivotal happens at them and they are used simply to make the story seem more in tune with reality.

In ‘The Last Assassin‘ (2006) (later retitled as ‘Extremis‘) Rain and Dox meet at Omen sushi bar (below) on 113 Thompson Street in Soho to discuss whether to go after Yamaoto. For the record this takes place on page 93 in chapter 12.

The Cupping Room Cafe (below) on 359 West Broadway is referenced on page 112 of chapter 15 in the same book and is where Rain’s love interest Delilah has a salad, marinated baby lamb chops and a glass of the red wine amid the quiet, low-key atmosphere of the place.

Rain walks to Carnegie Delicatessen (below) on 854 Seventh Ave at 55th Street in chapter 20 (page 202) of ‘Requiem For An Assassin‘ (2007) and has a couple of cups of coffee, some chicken soup and a huge roast beef sandwich (“that could have faced down Godzilla”) followed by a gigantic slice of apple pie.

This place can be seen in the 1984 Woody Allen film ‘Broadway Danny Rose‘ as seen in the screen grab above.

A couple of chapters later in the same book (page 212) sees Rain stop at Katz’s Delicatessen (below) and he said the food was good but he ate only for the sake of keeping his body going rather than because of hunger or relish. This was indeed the same restaurant which featured very memorably as the fake orgasm place in ‘When Harry Met Sally‘ (1989) which you can read more about, and see screenshots, here. Its address is 205 E. Houston Street in Manhattan.

You can see my other ‘On The Trail of John Rain‘ links by clicking on the following:

Prelude     Pt I     Pt II     Pt III