One spring morning, while entering the nursing home, I held the door open for a middle-aged man who was leaving. As he crossed the door’s threshold, an alarm sounded, and two security guards emerged, then guided him back into the facility. A petite, dark-haired woman approached, thanked the guards, and spoke soothingly to him. I could tell she was his wife.
“He’s new, Doc,” said a guard. “He’s much younger than the other residents and people don’t think he’s a patient. They let him out. So we have an ankle monitor on him.”
Approaching the couple, I spoke with his wife as Charles was escorted to his room. He’d been a resident for only four weeks. At 55, he suffered from early onset dementia which had progressed rapidly.
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Martin Walker is a senior fellow of a private think tank for CEOs of major corporations. He is also editor in chief emeritus and international affairs columnist for UPI and has been a journalist for the Guardian for many years. He has written five previous novels—all international best sellers—in the Bruno, Chief of Police mystery series. He lives in Washington, D.C. and the Dordogne region of France. His most recent Bruno novel is The Resistance Man.
Barry Eisler’s John Rain novels are the “Tiffany” of assassin-oriented, suspense thrillers. The recently released Graveyard of Memories is a prequel to the other novels in the John Rain series. At the story’s outset, Rain, 20 years old and fresh from Vietnam, is a courier for the CIA. He suddenly finds himself threatened on all sides: he must survive the yakuza (the Japanese mob) and other imminent sources of danger. He falls in love with Sayaka, a beautiful wheelchair-bound young woman. Balancing love and the horror of what he must do to survive, John learns his trade craft to become a master assassin. We witness his unfolding maturity as he attempts to stay alive without totally losing the sensitive, soulful and remorseful aspects of his persona.