HARD RAIN

John Rain, assassin extraordinaire, is back on the job, despite his desire to begin a new life. Rain is fluent in Japanese, and his half-Japanese, half-American background, with some help from plastic surgery, allows him to pass as Japanese in this multilayered plot involving Japanese mobsters, politicians, and Japan's equivalent of the FBI. Maintaining suspense and tension throughout, Dick Hill manages to capture a rhythm of speech that mirrors Japanese, lending authentic voices to the characters. He moves easily between English and Japanese, reading in a natural style. Modulating well and transitioning smoothly to the description between the action sequences, Hill moves into dramatic mode only when appropriate. It takes some attentiveness to sort out who is who among the many Japanese characters and what's going on, but in the end the listener is rewarded by a very good performance. S.S.R.
(c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB/ MAR 04]