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Thomas Perry pens stylishly crafted traditional thrillers, often based around very bad people. The pleasures in a Thomas Perry novel - and they are pleasures - consist of intricate, fascinating plots; characters drawn deeply enough to engage as more than plot cyphers; and subject matter drawn from the dark side of humanity. "Eddie's Boy" (coming out in December) is the fourth instalment of a series nearly four decades old; "The Butcher's Boy" won the Edgar Best First Mystery Award in 1983. Now Michael Schaeffer, trained long ago to be a mob hit man and astonishingly good at it, is older, settled in the English countryside. When, on the very first page of this juggernaut of action, assassins arrive to kill him, he is forced to resurrect his skills and go looking for those after him, a meticulously plotted journey to Australia and then to the heart of crooked America. I guarantee you'll not put the book down, and if sometimes Schaeffer's bleak world curdles inside your stomach, the cat-and-mouse hijinks soon flush the bile away. A thriller reader's thriller and worth every engrossing minute.

A new Thomas Perry thriller is always cause for celebration, whether it's one of his standalone or a new entry in a familiar and much praised series. This time he revisits the Butcher's Boy, the eponymous debut of a hitman for hire, which won several awards and who has been revisited by the author in subsequent novels. We know him by his style, smarts, unique ethical code, and by whatever name he's currently using, In Eddie's Choice, we get the butcher's boy's full backstory and a further exploration of how a bond formed in childhood with the man who took him in and apprenticed him for two different careers, both of which he mastered. That's the real meat of this story, which begins with an attack on the protagonist whose origins lie in his past, and after a few bloody encounters in which he deftly neutralizes the men sent by an old Mafia capo about to be paroled from prison who still wants him dead, the butcher's boy realizes again that he still can't outrun his past, or rest easy in the new life he's built in the present.
A terrific read that will send you to this talented writer's complete backlist if you don't already know it.

Eddie's Boy is the first book that I have read by Thomas Perry. The story kept me completely involved to the very satisfiying end.

Yesss!! The fourth book in the series and I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN! Read it cover to cover in one sitting! Even if you haven’t read the previous books in the series, I think you would still really enjoy this!

The Butcher's Boy is a strong, terrific character over several widely-spaced books by author Thomas Perry.
Always an interesting ride-along with a hitman of no particular morals, doubled by insights through the
Justice Department analyst who identifies him and tries to keep him alive long enough to testify against his
Mafia clientele. This latest outing, to me, was the weakest, as it focused on the hitman's backstory, his upbringing
and training by Eddie the Butcher (hitman AND neighborhood butcher!). Since The Butcher's Boy (he uses a variety of assumed names) is interesting but pretty much a sociopath, it's hard to warm up to these reminiscences.

Yes! Thomas Perry is back, with the return of the Butcher’s Boy in “Eddie’s Boy”, the fourth novel in the award-winning series.

I was not a fan of Mr. Perry’s last effort (“A Small Town”), so I approached this book with a little trepidation. I should not have worried and should have had more faith. The Butcher’s Boy is back, reluctantly, as once again there’s a price on his head, and it’s up to him to figure out why and respond appropriately before his time runs out.

Michael Shaeffer is living in England, enjoying his retirement from being a hit man-for-hire for the Mafia (and others) with his wife, when a group of assassins break into his house and attempt to kill him (one would think that these people would have learned their lessons from the previous novels, but lucky for us they haven’t). And he’s off and running, trying to figure out why him, why now. We also get a deeper glimpse into Michael’s past – his training with Eddie (the butcher from where he gets his name), how he gets the skills and knowledge that allowed him to become successful, the moral code that Eddie stamps into him, and how all of that leads Michael to where he is now.

Of course, the questions and answers all lead back to the United States, and Michael’s history with the mob. Once again he turns to Elizabeth Waring, a Federal agent with whom he has an even more complicated history, to try to figure out why he’s being targeted and what he needs to do to end this once again.

So we have a well-written action thriller as the Butcher’s Boy past and present collide in a big violent mess – what a fun ride! It helps greatly if you read the previous three books, as part of the fun is understanding the complicated relationships that have formed over the years. There are a few small critiques – the flashbacks occasionally take away from the action (although for a reason - Mr. Perry does bring things back around), the history gets a bit repetitive at times, the bad guys are a bit one-dimensional, the ending is a bit rushed. But the overall experience outweighs any minor issues; this is a fun end (maybe?) to the Butcher’s Boy series.

I requested and received a free advanced electronic copy from Grove Atlantic/Atlantic Monthly Press via NetGalley. Thank you!

I love this book. It (hopefully) brings to a close the saga of the Butcher's boy, someone whose adventures i've followed for over a decade...ever since i happened on Thomas Perry via Pursuit (another excellent, highly recommended book).
Michael Schaeffer finally lays to rest, in many ways, Carlo Bala..whose stiffing of Michael...many moons ago, started the whole saga of the Butcher's boy.
The plotting is taut and the protagonists Michael and Meg (the obligatory love interest, across decades, novels, killings and continents) gain our sympathy and our support.
The FBI exists...like the ever present semi-bumbling three letter agency, to provide a foil for Michael's expertise...
The Mafia exists, as a foil for Michael's craftsmanship.
My only beef with the novel is that the mafiosci is presented as two-dimensional, evil, antagonists to Michael....can't we make them just a tad more likeable.
But I suppose evil should have a face, a name, a family, but no redeeming features to evoke our empathy ...
Read this book.....you'll finish it in one sitting, or sleeping (if you're like me and like reading in bed)

Glad to see the Butcher's Boy return

I loved the original book and its sequels years ago and was happy to read this fourth in the series, which did not require me to remember any more than Michael, the Butcher's boy (named because he was raised by a butcher) is a hit man. This takes up years after he retired to England with his beloved (and wealthy) wife. For some unknown reason he now has many assassins trying to kill him. He needs to find out why.

This was a great book, perhaps not quite as as good as the original. but it certainly kept my attention from start to finish. There were a couple points that were unnecessarily repeated. For example, FBI agent Elizabeth Waring thinks about how he helped her during a home invasion (might have been in "The Informant"). A few pages later the whole scene was again relived by Michael. This happens a couple of times. There wasn't much of a difference in their point of view, so it got to remind me more of an elderly person who keeps repeating stories than a plot point.

But I really liked it. It does make me want to read "The Butcher's Boy" again, along with books two and three, "Sleeping Dogs" and "The Informant".

The fourth entry into the series that began with the 1982 Edgar award winning Butcher's Boy for best first novel. Eddie's Boy is set 7 years after The Informant and brings things to a consistent and satisfactory conclusion. The story is told mostly in the present but with frequent memories of the Butcher's Boy's time with Eddie the Butcher.

Flashbacks often annoy me as a reader. These memories were not quite flashbacks and were exceedingly well done. Mr. Perry has always tried new ways of telling his stories and I am very glad he continues to change things up.

Eddie's Boy is well worth reading but don't start the series here. There are years between each novel and I suspect they do not lend themselves well to reading out of order.

This is he 4th in the Butcher Boy series and I suspect it will be the last. It has been a few years since I read the first three books in the Butcher’s Boy series. I was happy to read that Michael has not lost his edge even though he is considerably older and retired. I did find that the flashbacks involving his background and evolution a bit repetitive and dragged on a bit. If you hadn’t read the previous books you would probably enjoy it. As in all the books in this series there is lots of violence and lots of action. The pace moves quickly when we aren’t wandering around in Michaels past. I enjoyed it and I think this whole series was one of Perry’s best but I do think it’s done now. Thank you NetGalley for the advanced readers copy for review.

This is the 4th book in the Butcher’s Boy series. I read the 1st Edgar award winning novel years ago and thought it had a fresh concept and great ideas but the story itself let it down. Later I discovered Perry’s excellent Jane Whitefield series using similar ideas that Perry had refined to an extraordinary level and won me over as a fan.
Thomas Perry is prolific and inventive but has had a patchy output over the last few years.
His last offering, A Small Town was a return to form and I enjoyed it very much.
Eddie’s Boy is even better.
I liked it so much that I intend to seek out the 2 preceding books in the series that I haven’t yet read. I may even re-read the first one.
I wholeheartedly recommend this book.

Eddie’s Boy by Thomas Perry - 5 Stars
Publisher: Grove Atlantic
ISBN: 978080215775

It has been several years since I read the first three books in the Butcher’s Boy series. I was glad to see that Michael has not lost his talents as he aged. I especially enjoyed the flashbacks to his early years when Eddie taught him his trade, to kill and survive.
As would be expected in a novel about an assassin for the mob, there is plenty of action and violence. Michael kills a lot of bad guys. His talents for intricate planning and manipulation are as good as his ability to survive an attack on his life.

There is enough past history included in this book to enjoy it without reading the first ones in the series, but I am sure it will encourage you to read the first three as well. I was excited to find that the Butcher’s Boy is back. While Thomas Perry’s books are always enjoyable, these are my favorites.

Reviewer: Nancy

I usually like and admire Thomas Perry's books but I decided to not finish this one. For one thing, I have not read the other books in the series and for another, I don't really want to read fiction about mob hitmen. A bit too much violence.

Perry never lets you down. Another classic read from a master of the genre.

Just one quibble. I thought some of the lengthy pieces of backstory exposition were too long and I found myself skimming a little here and there until the main narrative got back on track. Tighter editing of all the flashback stuff would have improved the overall pace quite a bit.

But, as I say, that's a quibble. This is another of those books that Perry does better than anyone else writing today: a wonderful novel with depth and substance that is cleverly disguised as genre fiction. Bravo!

I love Perry’s books and I found this one fascinating and exciting. However, I did feel there was just too much violence and too much that was unbelievable. Michael Schaffer, the butcher’s boy is the main character who is reawakened when squads of people are sent out to kill him, the result of an old caper he was involved in.

As the chase gets more intense and many more mafiosi are involved, I found myself confused by the hemorrhages of Italian names which were very confusing. So, I liked the book, but I preferred most of his other novels.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC.

Was I really so silly as to read this ARC months before its release date? I will now have to wait even longer for the next one! And that will be an eager wait as I loved Eddie's Boy right from the start. Author Thomas Perry wastes no time in getting the highly charged excitement going. Murder, he writes. One after another, our Butcher's Boy protects himself from yet another attempt to bump him off. His murder scenes are well-written, with exciting twists and intricate planning. The author does mix them up well, often giving us flashbacks into scenarios where multiple murders highlighted Michael Shaeffer's colorful past with Eddie. The action pretty much continues nonstop, and after a brief pause I jumped right back in.
Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC.

Now that’s a mystery!

I’ve been a fan of Thomas Perry since The Boyfriend, which is also a great audiobook, but this was my first novel in this series. It’s good as a stand-alone and not necessary to read the others first. Like all Perry’s books I’ve read, it’s a well-written and well-plotted mystery.

Thomas Perry reminds me a little of Michael Connelly, who I also love, in that his plots are smart and his tone is literary but straightforward. In this book I learned a little about the Cosa Nostra and loved the characters. I’ll be seeking out the other novels in this series soon.

Eddie’s Boy by Thomas Perry’ is a sequel to his Butcher’s Boy. The Butcher’s Boy tells of an orphaned boy who is taken in by a neighborhood Butcher Shop owner, Eddie. The story of the boy’s training by Eddie as a hired killer is as mesmerizing as it is uncomfortable. The story follows the boy into adulthood.
Eddie’s Boy follows the boy as a grown up as he is trying to avoid men hired to kill him. This book is a little thin on plot as it mirrors the last half of The Butcher’s boy. There are many incidents that are remembered and while not the same as in the previous book are very similar. While this is an enjoyable read it was not so much a sequel as an add-on to the first book.
Other Thomas Perry’s books are stand alone and are excellent.

Thomas Perry does it again.Another one of his books that drew me in from the firstbpages.So well written so tense will be recommending.#netgalley#groveatlantic