The Butcher's Boy

Winner of the Edgar Award for best first novel.Young Justice Department analyst Elizabeth Waring spends her days sifting through computer printouts looking for unusual incidents that might indicate that Mafia crime families are on the move - pattern anomalies that could mean shifting power and, potentially, opportunities to take them down. It's 1982, however, and this is a time-consuming, barely digitized, blend of art and science. It's one she's good at, but also one with few successes.When a local union leader is blown up in his truck in California, it gets Waring's attention, and with her office short-staffed, she manages to get herself out into the field to do some firsthand investigation. But just as she and her partner, Jim Hart, are making headway and beginning to conclude that the official explanation, involving an accident with fertilizer and blasting caps, might not withstand much scrutiny, they are ordered to Denver, where the state's senior U.S. Senator has just been found dead in his room. The trip feels like a waste of time at first - he was elderly and there are no signs of violence - but only until evidence is discovered that incontrovertibly indicates he was murdered by a daring and inventive assassin.Meanwhile, a nameless killer known only as the Butcher's Boy - he apprenticed under a master hit man who owned a neighborhood butcher shop - has come to Las Vegas to collect his fee for services rendered in California and in Denver. Except something's not right. Mafia leadership seems nervous at his presence - despite assurances that he's "not working" - and the Butcher's Boy is increasingly wary. He just wants to to get his money and leave Sin City, but the vibe is all wrong. So, when hired guns try to murder him on The Strip, he's not surprised, but he is furious. Angry at what he considers a lack of both respect and professionalism - and also needing to evade the hundreds of Mafia soldiers now pursuing him - the Butcher's Boy decides to sow confusion by killing the most senior Mafioso in the city, effectively starting a gang war.As Waring gets wind of what's happening in Las Vegas, she starts to make connections to the deaths of both the senator and the labor leader, but it's tenuous stuff, and difficult to prove to skeptical superiors. Meanwhile, the Butcher's Boy leaves a trail of death in his wake, and both Waring and the Mafia follow with a vengeance, sparing nothing to track him down.Best-selling author Thomas Perry has written more than 40 novels featuring a number of recurring characters. "The Butcher's Boy" is his first, but you'd never know it; the story positively hums at a page-turning pace, it's populated with memorable three dimensional characters - including its anti-hero leading man - and it's stuffed with smart and inventive twists and set pieces. Lean, mean, and tautly plotted, Perry elevates a beach-read thriller to heights few can match.(4.5/5.0)

I read one other Perry book previously and thought is was good. The recommendation was to read this first book by the author. It is also good but... The same comment as the first I read-too long and needs some editing.

"The Butcher's Boy" was Thomas Perry's debut novel way back (and many books ago) in 1982 and the winner of the 1983 Edgar Award for Best First Mystery Novel. That probably tells you all you need to know. This is a darn fine mystery, unconventional in many ways, and I couldn't put it down. It's written in a classic noir-ish style that is timeless, so the book doesn't feel dated despite the various anachronistic details that plant it squarely in the early 1980s. My only complaint about this was that I was often confused by the somewhat jumbled points of view and character introductions at the beginning.Elizabeth Waring is a DOJ analyst looking for crime patterns that indicate different types of murderers, specifically professional hitmen. The idea is that by following such patterns, not only can these rare creatures be tracked and arrested but their victims might provide clues to larger organized criminal activities. She is following up on one such murder in California when a US Senator dies and she is sent to assist the FBI in the investigation. The rest of the novel follows the investigation through several layers of connections, including Las Vegas mobsters and a shadowy investment company called FGE. In the meantime, the professional hitman known only to his clients as the Butcher's Boy (a reoccurring nemesis in four of Thomas Perry's "Butcher's Boy" series of novels) goes on a vendetta against the organized crime bosses he suspects have reneged on their end of the deal in order to protect themselves from FBI scrutiny. Throughout this debut, the Butcher's Boy remains a mysterious figure, his past as the stepson of another professional hitmen named Eddie the Butcher being the only hint at his real identity.The first few chapters felt a little bit like a legal-thriller, and I am easily bored by the technical and procedural jargon of that genre. But that feeling passed as the novel proceeds and the reader is drawn ever deeper into the murky pool of the Butcher Boy's underground outlaw lifestyle. It's all so well done. And very impressive as a debut novel.I know I am late in the game for becoming a Thomas Perry fan but I intend to share this book with others and go on to the sequel. It's that good.This is an attractive new/reprint edition published by Random House as a trade paperback with vintage typesetting. It's a fast read, clocking in at 313 pages. And the ending is absolutely perfect.Highly Recommended.

Perry's novel about a professional hit man with a genius IQ, a brilliant eye for detail and a rock where his heart should be, is not my usual reading fare. Nor is reading about the Mafia. I do like reading about women in law enforcement. Perry tries to make Elizabeth Waring, an analyst for the DOJ and clearly smarter than the men surrounding here, into a hero. But without the depth and gusto he reserves for his psychopathic central character. The author writes in great detail about Mafia operations and Federal law enforcement's inability to shut it down. His research is impressive and at odds with scenes so implausible I had to laugh. What kept me reading until the end? The author's speed neck prose, suspenseful story line, and impressive use of setting.

The author sometimes begins a chapter with a description of the scenery. It sets the stage. A reader can sense the emotions a character will feel at that level as sometimes the weather is described and felt. Awesome writing and characterization are at play here.

This is the last in the 4 book series of the "Butcher's Boy series.I loved them all , but to know this is the last book and my hero , "the bad guy" remains to live another day was a breathtaking tale ...I thought sure the moral of the story would be , "Crime does not pay", but it isn't a full proof plan , after all...Thanks, Thomas Perry! I Love your writing. Perhaps ,It is a bit gory, in places, but the story line is pure genius and the relationships played out are amazing.I hope Perry writes forever and I will be behind him reading every novel he writes!Highly recommended!

After continually coming across glowing reviews for Thomas Perry’s debut novel, The Butcher’s Boy, I decided to finally take the plunge and purchase a copy. As I often do, I purchased my book via Amazon’s used book sellers. This book was written way back in 1982, so I was expecting to find lots of scenarios/tropes that have since been done to death by thriller writers I have followed in my 40+ years of reading. However, on that score, I was pleasantly surprised because Mr Perry did bring some original elements to the tale which allows it to standout against more contemporary thrillers. So, there were parts of this book to enjoy, and I did like that because of the era, the characters had to depend on little in the way of technology in order to communicate, investigate, and keep tabs on the bad guys etc.Unfortunately, I thought the character building was poor, so much so that I couldn’t really get invested in the two main ones - Elizabeth Waring from the Justice Department and the hitman known as the ‘Butcher’s Boy’ who went under several alias’s as you’d expect. The other downside to this novel was the inclusion of so much extraneous details that mad the plot drag in places. It wasn’t all bad, otherwise I wouldn’t have read it in two days, but I have to say that this fell way below my expectations. It’s worth mentioning that after reading through a number of American reviews, I get the impression that Thomas Perry’s writing improved remarkably in his second novel (Sleeping Dogs) which was written ten years later and continued the Butcher’s Boy series. Also, many of those critical of the first book speak highly of Sleeping Dogs. So, TBB might be worth investing your time with, but only if you want to prepare yourself for reading SD.📖 + 📚 = 🙂

As an avid detective/thriller reader I enjoyed this pre-internet and mobile phone novel immensely

Thomas Perry at his best. The Butcher's Boy series are an excellent combination of fast, hard action and quiet reflection and realism. These books will suit fans of Robert Ludlum, Stephen Leather and Randolph Fiennes (Feather Men and The Sett) and David Morrell.

Perry is a very good writer in the genre. However subsequent reading of book following on from this reveals that he has had some good ideas, and he is meticulous, but he does return to use some of them again and again. Well worth reading though

satisfactory