AMOK: A Dox Thriller Novel - Suspenseful Reading for Crime Fans

Amok, set in 1991, may not exactly be an origin story, but it gives us a younger Dox recently returned from CIA work in Afghanistan after his time in Marines.Dox is still...Dox. But not quite as seasoned as we see him when he partners up with John Rain or becomes the on again off again love interest of Livia Lone.He is still the headstrong, sarcastic, wisecracking counterpoint to John Rain's near always serious Batman/Bourne demeanor from later novels. But he's still coming into his own. A little less self-assured here. But we see all the foundation for the older Dox.The story follows two main threads--Dox's troubled past and family dynamics at home in Texas and a job offer from the CIA in Timor.Both storylines are excellent. I particularly enjoyed learning more about Dox's childhood and the downstream consequences regarding his abusive father and his mother and sister(s). This part of the book caught and kept my attention earlier than the CIA job. But the geopolitics of East Timor, and the characters, Isobel and Joko, pulled me into that story as well.Eisler does a great job of mixing fictional characters with real events(and real reporters) from the Indonesian occupation of Timor. Some of the atrocities mentioned are as horrific as they are real, and all too often, common, in these conflicts.It's difficult for me to rank Amok compared to Eisler's other novels as I have spent so much time 'living' in the Rainverse that it's like being asked to rank friends or family. But Amok is excellent. It reminds me of a bit of the Livia Lone series--probably because of a similar narrative structure to the first Livia book that spends a lot of time moving through different time periods. Amok doesn't do it as often or as frequently, but it works very well.One side note that really caught my attention is how smart Dox really is. He plays it down and, I think, plays up his 'aw, shucks' demeanor. But he's *very* smart. And his impromptu English lessons with the antagonist Joko had me laughing out loud(particularly since I was listening to this on audible with Barry Eisler narrating). It recalled to me John Rain correcting Dox's grammar once in a novel set a decade or more later when Dox went into a standup routine about Rain being an assassin, international man of mystery, grammarian, and school marm.Amok is a novel full of action, suspense, and emotional highs and lows. And, fwiw, I really recommend the audible version.