The Butcher's Boy

American novelist Thomas Perry's first novel The Butcher’s Boy, published in 1982, was well received by both critics and the public. The suspense novel won the 1983 Edgar Award for Best First Mystery Novel (American). The work has been reprinted several times, and was followed by a second novel "Sleeping Dogs" (1992) [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE3D91F39F934A35756C0A964958260] featuring the same major characters.

"The Butchers Boy" features an unnamed hitman as primary protagonist. Murder is a craft for the "Butcher’s Boy", a reference to the man's foster father "Eddie the Butcher" who raised him in the trade. After the contract killer successfully completes a series of "hits" in the American west, he arrives in Las Vegas, Nevada to pick up his fee. Once there, however, he learns that he has become a liability to his shadowy Mafia employers, faces an attempt on his own life, and begins to violently improvise as he seeks to escape the criminal organization.

The initial hits completed by "The Butcher's Boy" attract the attention of U.S. government specialists on organized crime. Elizabeth Waring, a bright young analyst in the Justice Department, begins to see a pattern in the killings, and as the violence escalates around the United States, works her way closer to the identity of the murder "specialist." The book features sections from the viewpoint of both major characters and draws the reader into the minds of the killer and investigator. Most critics reported that readers hope the "Butcher's Boy" will succeed in evading both his Mafia pursuers and the government agents.

Publication information

* Perry, Thomas. "The Butcher's Boy". Scribner, 1982. ISBN 0-684-17455-3 (USA edition)