Monday, May 23, 2022

Sleeping Dogs by Thomas Perry

 

(pb; 1992: second book in the Butcher’s Boy series)

From the back cover

“He came to England to rest. He calls himself Michael Schaeffer, says he’s a retired American businessman. He goes to the races, dates a kinky aristocrat, and sleeps with dozens of weapons. Ten years ago, it was different. Then, he was the Butcher’s Boy, the highly skilled mob hit man who pulled a slaughter job on some double-crossing clients and started a mob war. Ever since, there’s been a price on his head.

“Now, after a decade, they’ve found him. The Butcher’s Boy escapes back to the States with more reasons to kill. Until the odds turn terrifyingly against him. . . until the Mafia, the cops, the FBI, and the damn Justice Department want his hide. . . until he’s locked into a cross-country odyssey of fear and death that could tear his world to pieces.”

 

Review

Like its source novel, The Butcher's Boy (1982) Sleeping has the same raw-yet-tightly-written immediacy, with strong (further) character development (for its leads), well-sketched supporting players, and enough cinematic, sometimes dark-humored action to make it worth adapting into a film or miniseries. Its leads, Schaeffer and E.V. Waring─the government agent who pursued him in the first book─are true to the earlier incarnations while growing more interesting, more layered as they go along. Looking forward to reading the third Butcher’s Boy novel, The Informant.

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