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Thomas Perry
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Sleeping Dogs Hardcover – April 21, 1992

by Thomas Perry (Author), Debbie Glasserman (Designer)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 2,324 ratings
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He came to England to rest. He calls himself Michael Shaeffer, 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 . . .
"Exciting . . . Suspenseful . . . A thriller's job is to make you turn the pages until the story's done and your eyes hurt and the clock says 3 a.m. . . . I wouldn't try to grab this one away from somebody only half-way through. No telling what might happen."
-- Michael Dirda, The Washington Post Book World


From the Paperback edition.
Previous page
  1. Book 2 of 4
    Butcher's Boy
  2. Print length
    337 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    Random House
  5. Publication date
    April 21, 1992
  6. ISBN-10
    0679410643
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0679410645
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Much of the action in Perry's disappointing follow-up to The Butcher's Boy remains jumpy and disjointed as former hitman Michael Schaeffer, aka Charles Frederick Ackerman, William Wolf or Butcher's Boy, is brought out of hiding in England. Ten years have passed since Schaeffer foiled the attempt of mob employer Carlo Balacontano to have him killed in lieu of payment and then framed the Mafia boss for a particularly grisly murder. As this story opens, Schaeffer avoids an assassination attempt at the Brighton racetrack and realizes his cover has been blown. He returns to New York to find out who ordered the hit and how many bad guys may still be after him. Despite the lurid fascination of the characters' pasts, the plot seems more to congeal than thicken as Schaeffer tries to dispose of or evade all who might be on his trail, including Justice Department lawyer Elizabeth Waring, so that he can retire again to the English countryside. With heroes and villains so easily interchangeable, readers may wonder who they should root for, and why. 50,000 first printing.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Perry is the author of four previous novels: Island ( LJ 1/88), Big Fish ( LJ 3/15/85), The Butcher's Boy ( LJ 8/82), and Metzger's Dog ( LJ 9/15/83). His new work brings Charles Ackerman--a.k.a., the Butcher's Boy, a killing-machine-for-hire--out of retirement in England and back to the United States to silence those people he mistakenly thinks have discovered his whereabouts. The story follows Ackerman as he travels coast to coast slaughtering one crime family's head honchos. Perry's book is well written, moves rapidly, and thankfully keeps the gore minimal. But reading it is an uneasy experience--a vicious hitman is not attractive as a main character. Buy where the author's earlier works are popular. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 12/91.
- A.J. Wright, Univ. of Alabama, Birmingham
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Random House; First Edition (April 21, 1992)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 337 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0679410643
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0679410645
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1 pounds
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 2,324 ratings

About the author

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Thomas Perry

Thomas Perry

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THOMAS PERRY is the author of 23 novels including the Jane Whitefield series (Vanishing Act, Dance for the Dead, Shadow Woman, The Face Changers, Blood Money, Runner, Poison Flower, and A String of Beads), Death Benefits, and Pursuit, the first recipient of the Gumshoe Award for best novel. He won the Edgar for The Butcher's Boy, and Metzger's Dog was a New York Times Notable Book. The Independent Mystery Bookseller's Association included Vanishing Act in its "100 Favorite Mysteries of the 20th Century," and Nightlife was a New York Times bestseller. Metzger's Dog was voted one of NPR's 100 Killer Thrillers--Best Thrillers Ever.

Thomas Perry was born in Tonawanda, New York in 1947. He received a B.A. from Cornell University in 1969 and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Rochester in 1974. He has worked as a park maintenance man, factory laborer, commercial fisherman, university administrator and teacher, and a writer and producer of prime time network television shows. He lives in Southern California.  His website: www.thomasperryauthor.com

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
2,324 global ratings
Fairly good condition
4 Stars
Fairly good condition
the book was as expected, in fair condition so I am satisfied, because of its age the pages are yellowing but other than that the book is intact and readable
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Top reviews from the United States

Carole T
5.0 out of 5 stars Incredibly dark and incredibly funny!
Reviewed in the United States on November 28, 2023
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Jay Leno’s skit on stupid criminals came to mind while reading the sometimes laugh-out-loud maneuvers of the mafia “employees” trying to take down the Butcher’s Boy.
I’ve read several of Thomas Perry’s novels and I’m amazed at his ability to portray gangsters, federal law enforcement officers and women so well. Assuming, of course, that he is none of these. Incidentally, I loved that he kept describing the “little” Toyota and “small” suitcase. Not sure why I found that so endearing. Maybe it’s because those kinds of words were so well intermingled with the ones from Perry’s vast vocabulary.
Can’t wait to read the next installment.
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JM Harvey
4.0 out of 5 stars I really like the character
Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2023
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I like the Butcher’s Boy character but the pacing was a little slow. But when this was written the pace of suspense novels was much slower than the frenetic thrillers written today. Writing is always good from this author but the character pretty much does all the same things he did in the first entry of this trilogy with the same result. And the Waring character was as bland as ever.
3 people found this helpful
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Fred H. Dimond
5.0 out of 5 stars Can a professional assassin be a hero ?
Reviewed in the United States on May 3, 2022
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Can a professional assassin be a hero

In Sleeping Dogs the Butcher’s Boy has many of the earmarks of a hero. He is resourceful, operates alone, is brave and incredibly effective. However, his job is killing people for money. On the other hand a great many of his victims are bad guys who need killing. And in most cases, if he doesn’t kill his targets they will kill him. Confusing for the reader.
Also confusing for Elizabeth Waring, a clever Dept of Justice investigator. Despite the Butcher Boy’s carefully crafted anonymity she has figured out that he exists as a lone operator. His being a one - man assassination squad is improbable because of the number of people he has killed and the fact that he is being pursued by a large group of deadly Mafioso who keep getting killed while trying to kill him.
If Waring can entrap Butcher Boy she could bring down quite a few public enemies, which would certainly enhance her career. On the other she finds herself somewhat ambivalent about him since he tried to retire and the number of bad guys trying to get him is overwhelming. He is forced back into killing in order to avoid being killed.
This is a great story [ one book in a great series ] as the Butcher’s Boy barely avoids death while he tries to survive. And in the end he saves Waring and her children from an ugly death.
Thomas Perry is one of the best fiction writers out there. His Jane Whitefield series is one of the best ever

Fred Dimond
One person found this helpful
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James Ellsworth
5.0 out of 5 stars First-Class Thriller Writing and Plotting
Reviewed in the United States on February 3, 2017
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Thomas Perry is a masterly writer whose thrillers enthrall and entertain from one series to another. His style is spare and his plots are driven by applying logic to problems to produce direct, action-based solutions. I agree with a fine review that this 1993 work is just as crisp and relevant today (2017) as it was then. The Butcher's Boy was orphaned or discarded; found and raised by a butcher named Eddie Mastrewski. Eddie had two businesses and this series' protagonist was trained in both of them. Selling custom cuts of meat was a dead end over the years but putting people on slabs for big dollars proved to be a growth industry. THE BUTCHER'S BOY and SLEEPING DOGS hit the highlights of the boy's life after Eddie's death.

We can never forget that we met the Butcher's Boy as he amorally kills an honest union member who is concerned about bad pension fund investments and then moves on to kill an honest United States Senator who wants to close tax loopholes. A good part of the tension is the series comes from the sympathy we nonetheless feel for a man who never knew a different kind of life and our knowledge that, in the end, he was used to kill decent people rather than dishonest mob associates. SLEEPING DOGS begins where BUTCHER'S BOY left off. Our emotionally underdeveloped hit man is slowly coming to understand a 'normal' way of life and he is slowly becoming able to feel for people other than Eddie. We also learn that logic can only take him so far: on a pleasant social outing to an English racing meeting, he is recognized by someone from his past. He logically assumes that, with a Mafia price on his head, someone has sent a team to England to collect. That is not the case and he has no way of knowing that he has quickly cleaned up a chance problem. He heads back to The States to convince people that it is better TO LET SLEEPING DOGS LIE. This two-volume series is 'to die for!'
9 people found this helpful
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Laurie Fletcher
4.0 out of 5 stars Butcher's Boy revisited...
Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2003
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This is the much-anticipated (by me) follow-up to "Butcher's Boy". It is a good but not wonderful sequel, as so many are, but still worth the read. But be forewarned: this also has a pretty implausible and coincidental ending. As in "Butcher's Boy", Perry has made our protagonist (here he is named Michael Shaeffer) a just-sympathetic-enough sociopath for us to be rooting for him without compromising our true sense of right or wrong. By accident, he is flushed out of hiding in England and instead of continuing to flee, he returns to the United States to meet his ghosts head-on. The will to survive in this killer is so strong, that it is possible to admire that element and distance oneself from the horror of what he does - but only just. It is never a comfortable choice and requires a full complement of justification. In telling this story, Perry takes us from England back to the States and on a grand tour of characters, locations, and techniques and the journey is never dull. One scene that is fixed in my mind is Michael's character-establishing encounter with a New York street tough. It is icily well written.
11 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

AlmiraG
5.0 out of 5 stars Thomas Perry is still the best! It's tricky to create a character such as ...
Reviewed in Canada on August 31, 2015
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Thomas Perry is still the best! It's tricky to create a character such as the Butcher's Boy and more importantly make him believable. I would have said it would be virtually impossible to have that same character mature (age gracefully and wisely) but TP somehow pulls it off.

A brilliant trilogy and I am sad it's over!
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A. Martin
4.0 out of 5 stars Sleeping Dogs
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 22, 2011
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Another good novel from Perry - not quite his best work, but consistently entertaining. I'm really surprised Hollywood hasn't come knocking, as his books have a strong cinematic quality. I give it three-and-a-half out of five (rounded up to 4 stars).
One person found this helpful
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Sophistic8
5.0 out of 5 stars Great story..
Reviewed in Canada on May 12, 2019
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I've been looking everywhere for this book, thank you!
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judith M
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 30, 2017
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Reading it now - great thanks.
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mikey_sl
3.0 out of 5 stars Three Stars
Reviewed in Canada on July 25, 2016
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good condition
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