I am a member of the American Library Association Reading List Award Committee. This title was suggested for the 2020 list. It was not nominated for the award. The complete list of winners and shortlisted titles is at <a href="https://rusaupdate.org/2020/01/2020-reading-list-years-best-in-genre-fiction-for-adult-readers/">

A joint FBI–Seattle Police investigation of an international child pornography ring is abruptly canceled. Then a Fed and contractor die in an airplane crash and Seattle sex-crimes detective Livia Lone is also targetted. Suspecting that the FBI was responsible, Livia reaches out to former marine sniper Dox. Together, they assemble an ad hoc killer collective to identify and neutralize the threat: John Rain, his estranged lover, Mossad agent Delilah, black op soldiers Ben Treven and Daniel Larison and their former commander, Colonel Horton. The trail moves from Seattle to Virginia to Paris where the killer collective set up a plan to confront the CEO of a private arms outfit who has links with the highest levels of the US government.

This was not up to the high standard I expect from the author of the John Rain and Livia Lone thrillers. Lots of talk, sprinkled with some action and carnage but could not get engaged in the story,

I received an eARC from Netgalley and Thomas and Mercer with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book and provided this review.

Book is so fantastic I would give it six stars out of five if I could. Great plot, and characters. Love everything by Barry Eisler.

As much as I loved Livia Lone, I couldn't say the same thing for The Night Trade or The Killer Collective. There was too much going on and too many characters to keep track of. Don't get me wrong, I still LOVE Livia/Labee and her story. And I did really enjoy the rest of the "collective". But the second half of the book was too much planning and not and not enough story or action. However, I can't wait to see what's next for Livia.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I feel like I've been given a reward. Barry Eisler writes some of the best spy thriller books I've ever read. With his usual cast of characters, he can set you up and take you for a fast ride through many, many close calls. The action is quick and deadly, but our heroes come through at the last minute. You'll never regret picking up a Barry Eisler book.

The killer collective is an interesting title for a bit of a sit at the edge of your seat book. This will not disappoint

Reading this I wished I'd had background on the characters. It's not that you can't follow the story without previous reading, but I had no connection or buy in. I would like to come back to this when I catch up.

Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of The Killer Collective. I was under no obligation to review this book and my opinion is freely given.

I was so excited to read The Killer Collective, as Livia Lone is one of my favorite female characters in the genres of mystery, thriller, and suspense. Livia's strength and determination, as well as her desire to right the wrongs of the world, give readers a very different view of the world than they might have previously had.

Although the novel did not disappoint as far as Livia is concerned, I was less than impressed in the overall plot. Given Livia's background, I was expecting the trafficking aspect to take center stage. I did not realize that the novel would include long standing characters from the author's previous works, characters that are not familiar to me. The inclusion of the government, and the issues that arise as a direct result, fractured the plot in a lot of ways instead of unifying it. The author took too long to combine the different plot lines, which slowed the pacing of the book down. Having not read the John Rain novels, it took me a little longer to get up to speed with his character.

All of this aside, readers who are familiar with all of the novels of Barry Eisler may enjoy visiting with all of their favorite characters in one book. Personally, I wanted this to be only about Livia Lone, so I was a bit disappointed in the novel as a whole. Had I known that The Killer Collective was structured in this manner, I may have read the John Rain novels first. Readers who like mystery suspense thrillers with strong female main characters may find this novel to their liking.

Good to see John, Dox and the rest of the group together again.
There are very few authors I'll pick up without reading the blurb first but Barry Eisler is one of them.
The Rain books are always spot on thrillers with excellent characters.
When I'm at a loss in my life with things I ask myself ' what would rain do?'
It has held me in good stead so far.
Definitely worth reading as are all Eislers other books.
5 stars for me.

If you are a follower of the Rain series, you will be rewarded with this book. If not, it’s fine and there is plenty to keep you busy as the action never stops. I really enjoyed the separate POVs. There was a bit of language here but not overwhelming.
As a casual Rain reader, there is enough reference to past events I want to go back and catch up. Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for this ARC.

This is the first book that I have read by Barry Eisler and I hope to read more. The Killer Collective had so many interesting characters. Livia, a police officer in Seattle with a violent and mysterious past, has created a program CHild's Play joint task force to catch child rapists all over the world. Somehow agents in the Secret Service have learned of her program and are using it to harm children.
The story is about a group of ex army agents who now are killers for heir who join together to find the evil people in the government who have destroyed Child's Play which was a program designed to help others.
The book is fast moving and most of the people who come together mean well but think nothing of killing those that don't agree with them. HIs main character, Livia, is very interesting and had a very hard destructive childhood. She is so determined to catch and maybe kill any child sexual abuser. She and her sister were both abused as children and she has not been able to have successful relationships since..

Absolutely one of THE best thrillers I have ever read.. Deep plot, shocking yet logical twists, unusual and very different characters and relationships. From the beginning this read was a tense ride. It never felt too long nor any boring paragraphs to be skipped.
Truly worththy of your time, money, heard & intelligence
Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for making this arc available to be for an honest review

I read all the "Rain-man" thrillers when I was deployed and they were only in paperback. I consider myself a true fan and with some of the last few I felt we were getting a "kinder-softer Rain" which I did not like.

Then comes super woman, beat up all male comers, Livia Lone. Just not for me, give me the old Rain. Yet here the author bounces back with a tale that combines an "all-star team" of assassins without tipping the stupid cart. Welcome back Barry, I think you are finding your way. Read and enjoy!!

Immediately dropped into a world of cover-ups, espionage, mercenaries and dodgy goings-on with guns, threats and fights - I had to stop for breath before the story began.

Plans to investigate a paedophile ring are thwarted by some unknown body at a superior level for some unknown reason. A group of specialists at the top of their game are called together to find out about this. Un-named people doing barely legal things and secret meetings...so exciting and mysterious.

If you are familiar with Eisler's work or the workings of the American system, technology, the CIA (or is it the FBI?) and guns, you may be able to follow aspects of the story better than I did, as at times it seemed as if I was missing something. Or perhaps it is because this is part of a series of books centring around a couple of the central characters. Who knows.

Eisler is a crisp writer, he doesn't waste time on flowery descriptions and mostly his prose is really engaging. The story flows well with plenty of action deftly worded in fairly short chapters. The gunfights and explosions keep the excitement and suspense going while the exotic locations, such as Bali and Paris, serve to make the story even more glamorous.

Although this book is billed as a story of revenge, the most obvious theme is one of isolation as each character is typically a loner with a couple of them yearning for lost love or past times. In their previous roles they also worked this way and as the 'Collective' they have to adapt to teamwork and work through distrust and potential personality clashes.

This book is a great modern adventure, although it is better read as part of a series I suspect.

#TheKillerCollective #NetGalley

Topical fast paced read that will appeal to thriller lovers. This one often goes over the top but it always keeps you turning pages.

The Killer Collective by Barry Eisler
John Raine #10
Livia Lone #3
Ben Treven #4

Powerful people conceal crimes, murder innocents and do dastardly deeds that sometimes seem unbelievable but sadly are based in fact. This fast-paced action-packed story kept my attention from beginning to end. The characters were well developed and likable, the story is dark and gritty and difficult but well worth having a spotlight focused on. Human trafficking is not right. Torture is not right. Hurtcore is not right. In this book a motley crew of people come together for a variety of reasons and in so doing solve a mystery, help bring down a group filming the abuse of children and come to grips with some of their own personal issues. A number of bad guys are killed and at one point I thought it seemed almost more like a computer game with so many being killed off and yet...it also seemed highly likely that this set of characters would act and react as they did.

This is the first book I have read by this author and though it also has a variety of characters with series of their own I had no trouble following the story, relating to the characters, realizing what their motivations were or rooting for them as they did what they did to get the job done. I can say that I am eager to read more by this author and though one of the series may be finished with this book there are more characters with series that can still be written – and I do hope they will be.

What I liked:
* Livia’s strength and dedication to protecting those that cannot protect themselves
* Dox’s appreciation of Livia’s strengths and limitations
* Raine’s meticulous mind and eventual admission of love for someone he walked away from
* Delilah – for more than one reaosn
* Supporting characters on the op and those that provided intel and equipment
* The believability of the story and how it unfolded
* The flaws within the characters
* That I felt I would like to know and befriend some of the people in the story
* The way the story unfolded
* And more

What I did not like:
* Knowing that Child’s Play really existed and probably still does in one form or another
* That people can be so very evil
* That sometimes there is no answer no matter how much we might look for one.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas Mercer for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars

I’ve been a fan of Eisler’s series featuring assassin John Rain for some time now. I’ve found him to be a rather more developed character than some other fictional exterminators. I also like the the fact that he appears to have at least some morals and shows appreciation for some of the finer things in life, such as a decent dram of whiskey. More recently I’ve also enjoyed Eisler’s new series of books which have introduced Seattle PD sex crimes detective Livia Lone, a feisty and independent woman who survived an horrific ordeal and now ruthlessly chases down perpetrators, often dispensing her own brutal form of justice.

Here we first witness Liva unearthing an international child pornography ring before surviving an assassination attempt. In the aftermath of this near miss she discovers that the order for the hit is likely to be linked to her current case and could even have been ordered from within the ranks of the FBI. Meanwhile we catch up with Rain who, as it happens, has just turned down a job (that of killing Livia) because he refuses to kill women and children. Now an attempt is also made to take his life. This action causes Rain to pull together a small army of contacts (characters readers of Eisler’s books will be familiar with) to track down and neutralise those responsible for this action.

As the two parts of the story merge there is an element of one of those films where all the Marvel superheroes come together to participate in one big adventure. This does dilute the amount of time spend on any touchy feely stuff, but that’s not really what these books are about and the upside is that there is a good deal of action here. And Eisler does action extremely well, choreographing scenes expertly and drawing the reader into the fighting with clear and precise commentary. Towards the end there is time for a little update on relationship issues and I wonder if we’re seeing the author sign off on John Rain’s career? Time will tell.

Another first-rate adventure from a writer I have ever growing admiration for.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #thomasandmercer for this ARC

#TheKillerCollective is, not only a continuation, but a collaboration of several different series’ by @BareyEisler. Several popular characters are brought together to form a skillful ‘killer collective’ hell bent on vigilante justice for a powerful group of individuals involved in child pornography. The narrative is fast-paced, full of betrayal, lies, and corruption. The characters are unique and powerful, bringing the storyline to life with every flip of the page. Great read. 5 stars.

I enjoyed reading this book. It had a good story to it. I liked the variety of characters in it. It is my first book read by this author. I hope to read more books by this author.

I can't be the first to call this Eisler's Infinity War? An Eisler fan's dream team-up of all of his protagonists, with all of the interaction between the characters one could imagine. Oh yeah--and a gripping plot and brilliantly written action set pieces. A real treat, and I can only hope it won't be the last time these characters need to band together, even if it's not to defeat Thanos.