"If Citibank thought they could make more money stealing cars, you wouldn't be able to ride from here to...

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	• Sleeping Dogs Thomas Perry Ivy Books, 1993 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 20 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

non-stop thrills!

"Sleeping Dogs" is the sequel to "The Butcher's Boy". The Butcher's Boy was raised by a butcher whose main income came from being a professional assassin. After being forced to kill a number of mob figures in "The Butcher's Boy" he fled to England and retired on his earnings. He found a girlfriend, a member of the English aristocracy named the Honorable Meg, and managed to lay low for ten years. When Meg took him to the races, a young man who witnessed the killing of one of his Mafia relatives as a child and a couple of low-level henchmen tried to kill him. The assassin then mistakenly thinks the Mafia put out a contract on him, and he returns to the United States to eliminate the men he thinks are out to get him again. He's been out of the action for a long time, and the world has changed a lot, with more computers and checking of documents at airports. As in the previous book, the reader finds it impossible to avoid rooting for the assassin, a retired craftsman, totally out of the loop, who just wants to be left alone. This book is a thrill a minute and a laugh a minute, and very very well written. Thomas Perry is a really great author!

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"If Citibank thought they could make more money stealing cars, you wouldn't be able to ride from here to the bathroom."

It's been ten years since the publication of _The Butcher's Boy,_ Perry's award-winning debut novel. It's also been ten years since the title character managed to slip out of the country after laying waste to a number of mafiosi and their minions and he has spent that time in quiet retirement in Bath, England. He's become mildly involved with a titled young woman and when she talks him into taking her to the races down in Brighton, he has the misfortune to be seen and recognized by a young member of a mafia family from back home. It's actually pure chance, but our boy can only assume the contract on him of a decade before is still active. After dealing with the immediate threat in his usual lethal manner, he goes back to America to try to convince the "old men" to simply leave him alone. If they do, then he'll leave them alone. If not, well, . . . he certainly hasn't forgotten how to do his job. Elizabeth Waring, analyst for the Justice Department, suffered ten years ago, too, but now she's been called back in to try to deal with the hit man's return. It's a marvelous story, with fully realized characters and tightly orchestrated, vividly described action, and I can't help thinking the two novels would make an excellent film and a sequel.

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Too Much Work!!!

I read and loved The Butcher's Boy, Perry's first novel. I was really looking forward to this one, but it disappointed me.

In the first book, Perry was straightforward and to the point. In Sleeping Dogs, it's almost as if Perry was told by someone that you have to explain every detail of every character. This includes people who are just about to be killed. So with every new character he brings in, we get a few pages of history on the person, only to have them get killed a second later, or leave the plot line never to be heard from again.

The ending was a real disappointment. The method Perry uses to allow The Butcher's Boy to get away is very poor. I really felt cheated.

So my advice is read the first one, and skip the second.

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Stick with the Original

As other reviews have indicated this is the sequel to Butcher Boy. Maybe because I so enjoyed the character in Butcher Boy was so wonderful I was disappointed in this effort. It was fun and at times suspenseful it just did not make any sense. Also there were just too many close calls. Lastly I could not figure out why Agent Ware was even in the story,. I kept waiting for her to have some role and she really did not.

Having said all of this a subpar Perry still is a pleasant diversion.

A Real Winner

I was surprised to find no previous reader reviews of this book. I think the editorial reviews sadly underrate it. It's hard to identify with an assasin as the hero of a story, but Perry made it impossible not to care about the Butcher's Boy and want him to prevail over his obstacles. I read this before the first book (Butcher's Boy) and liked it so much that I sought that one out to get the beginning of the story. I think Sleeping Dogs was more satisfying. I enjoy all of the Perry books and look forward to the next one which always seems fresh even if it involves a continuing character like Jane Whitehead. You really can't go wrong with any of his books if you like interesting plots and characters which are always well written.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

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

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