Publishers Weekly
★ 10/05/2020
Edgar-winner Perry’s superbly crafted fourth Butcher’s Boy novel (after 2011’s The Informant) opens with retired hit man Michael Schaeffer driving a car with the bodies of three inept assassins he killed earlier that night as they were breaking into the Yorkshire manor house he shares with his wife, Meg. Michael intends to find out who ordered the hit on him, and after saying goodbye to Meg, who’s fully aware of his former profession, he travels to Australia for safety. But when gunmen ambush him there as well, Michael realizes, after eliminating them with ruthless efficiency, that a trip to the States will be necessary to pinpoint the origin of the attacks. In the U.S., he seeks out Justice Department bigwig Elizabeth Waring, who once used him as an informant, and suggests a trade for info about his hunters. It soon becomes clear that the likely instigator is a Mafia don Michael helped send to prison years earlier by framing him for a murder. An immensely clever cat and mouse game he engineers involving Waring and various mob factions ensues. Perry delivers a master class in the art of propulsive tension. Agent: Mel Berger, WME. (Dec.)
From the Publisher
Praise for Eddie’s Boy:
“Perry makes the distant past as vivid and immediate as the relentlessly paced present.”—Kirkus Reviews
Praise for Thomas Perry:
“[Perry is] a master of nail-biting suspense.”—Los Angeles Times
“Plenty of characters, plenty of emotion, plenty of insider expertise, but most of all plenty of irresistible momentum toward a fantastic climax—in other words, The Bomb Maker is typical Thomas Perry.”—Lee Child, on The Bomb Maker
“The best thing about Thomas Perry’s thrillers are the devilishly ingenious schemes his protagonists devise to outwit their pursuers…Perry can really write.”—San Francisco Chronicle, on The Boyfriend
“Perry is so skillful with the old chase-and-pursuit routine, creates such interesting characters, and writes about them so tellingly, one wants more immediately, not next year—right now.”—Boston Globe
“Mr. Perry, in this first-rate thriller, proves as cagy as his criminal mastermind: The reader rarely anticipates his next move. He balances breathtaking suspense with romantic intrigue.”—Wall Street Journal, on The Bomb Maker
“[A harrowing hunt-and-hide adventure…nobody writes chase scenes like Perry, who devises intricate itineraries, multiple identities and frequent costume changes.”—New York Times Book Review, on The Old Man
“Perry…builds suspense with all the subtlety of a master chef nursing a risotto to a buttery perfection. It's nothing new to call Perry a master of the genre, but it's no less true for being widely acknowledged.”—Booklist
“Perry is a master of plotting…Most readers know him from his Jane Whitefield ‘disappeared’ series. His thrillers, of which this is one of the best, are even better.” ―Globe and Mail (Toronto)
“Perry delivers a perfect melding of character and plot, light and dark, and he totally immerses the reader in an irresistible narrative.”—Booklist, “Top 10 Crime Novels of the Year,” on Forty Thieves
“Since his Edgar Award-winning debut novel, The Butcher's Boy . . . Thomas Perry has put together a rewarding string of suspense novels with as much cool competence as some of his best protagonists bring to their work . . . Perry’s a real pro.” —Shelf Awareness, on The Old Man
Library Journal
07/01/2020
Michael Shaeffer, the star of Perry's Edgar Award-winning The Butcher's Boy, is now living peaceably in England with his upper-crust wife. When her annual summer party attracts strangers set on killing Michael, he reactivates all the skills that once made him a coveted mob hit man.
JANUARY 2021 - AudioFile
Michael Kramer returns to narrate the fourth audiobook in the Butcher’s Boy series. Michael Schaefer, a retired hit man, has been enjoying the good life in England with his aristocratic wife. But one Mafia boss, who has a long memory and a particular grudge against him, seeks revenge. Kramer’s voicing of Schaefer is easy to listen to and conveys the personality of this smart, reluctant, and patient former assassin. Kramer’s performance of the female characters, particularly Schaefer’s British wife, is less credible. Listeners will learn about the key events in Schaefer’s childhood that shaped him. They will appreciate the returning characters, stay tuned to the fast-paced action, and root for the somewhat sympathetic man who kills killers in his search for inner peace. E.Q. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2020-09-02
Nine years after his comeback appearance in The Informant (2011), the Butcher’s Boy returns yet again, and for the usual reason: Because somebody’s trying to kill him.
Michael Schaeffer, as he’s been calling himself now for many years, hardly breaks a sweat dispatching the four hit men who break into his aristocratic wife’s Yorkshire home. But an old pro like him realizes they’re only the tip of an iceberg, and when his flight to Australia merely makes him the target of a completely new crew of assassins, he realizes that the only way to end such a serpentine plot is to cut off its head. Breaking cover to drop in uninvited on Elizabeth Waring, the Justice Department Organized Crime official who still dreams of turning him into an informant, he learns one fact that could explain why he’s suddenly become a person of interest to both feds and organized crime once more: the impending parole hearing of Carlo Balacontano, a career criminal convicted in 1982 of the rare murder he didn’t commit. The Butcher Boy, hired by Bala for a routine hit and then placed in the crosshairs by his client because Bala didn’t care to pay him, killed Bala's frontman, Arthur Fieldston, and then took exceptional pains to frame Bala for the crime. Has his former client been waiting all these years for revenge? Or are the folks at Justice taking advantage of his possible parole to turn up the heat on Michael Schaeffer? Either way, many more brutally efficient executions are guaranteed. The biggest surprise here is the number of extended flashbacks to the Butcher Boy’s apprenticeship to (who else?) the Butcher.
Despite the valedictory elements, Perry makes the distant past as vivid and immediate as the relentlessly paced present.