Customer Reviews

Sleeping Dogs

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The specialist (from "The Butcher's Boy") is back. He's been laying low in England for the past ten years, when he is rudely thrust back into his old life. What follows is all based on one wrong assumption he makes. I was reminded of the time in the movie theater when the man in front of me got so caught up in the movie, he actually shouted at the screen, "Hey! You've got it all wrong. Wake up!". I was about to shout that that at this book, but I didn't want to startle the dog sleeping at my feet. I found the main character appealing even though he is an assassin. He is, after all, taking out the bad guys. There is lots of action and it's fun to see how he gets out of one scrape after another. I like the way Thomas Perry writes. As with his Jane Whitefield stories (she is a specialist too. She helps people disappear) he is clever, witty, sometimes even humorous, and he doesn't waste my time with unnecessary dialogue or endless descriptions. The ending was spectacular. You really got me with this one Mr. Perry.

Sleeping Dogs, I admit, was the first book I read by Thomas Perry. I have since read and enjoyed, to varying degrees, all his other works. I always come back to Sleeping Dogs though. It is definitely my favorite book, and when ever I read it, it's as if I've come home again. I realize it's almost scary to have a person sympathize with the Butcher's Boy as much as I do, but I constantly admire, appreciate, and understand his ruthless and logical approach to solving problems. I also felt that the "villains" in the book were incredibly fun, and provided a good balance. it's difficult to pick favorites, but Fratelli, the one who is infuriated more and more while trying to escape the Butcher's Boy, and shake off the clingy paranoid bank manager, as well As Bala himself with his unbelievable losing streak against his Gin partner in prison are definite stand outs to me. Also Jack Hamp, I felt, was a wonderful addition as the flip side of the coin to the Butcher's Boy. And of course, I fell in love with the Honourable Meg as well. Overall, I just feel this book is exciting, amusing, ironic, and just thoroughly enjoyable. The only fault I can find is that Perry's Mafia structure doesn't quite jive with reality, but it really doesn't matter. I keep trying to figure out if certain people are from New York, or if they're Chicago, but in Perry's world it seems like Mafia is Mafia, with no real seperation. And that doesn't ultimately matter. To sum up, I feel this book is flawless, and will probably continue to read it once a month until my eyes go.

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.

"Sleeping Dogs" and "Butcher's Boy" are the best novels written by Thomas Perry. His other novels are interesting and well written but the characters don't have the appeal of the assassin.

"Butcher Boy" takes top rating from critics and most readers but I felt "Sleeping Dogs" was a tad better than the first novel. Perry writing is a level above contemporay fiction writers. Apparently, he learned how to get the point across in a miniumn amount of words.

Hopefully, Perry will decide to write a sequel to "Sleeping Dogs".

"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!

If I found myself on a desert island . . . with only "Sleeping Dogs" to read - I'd be perfectly happy! I love Perry's Jane Whitfied series - but "Sleeping Dogs" is my all-time favorite. It's a masterfully written mystery (taut, suspenseful, fast-paced) and at the same time a wickedly "laugh until your teeth ache" dark comedy.

Slow to start if you didn't read The Butchers's Boy. But, builds speed as it moves along. Some good twists and turns. Very suspensful.

I'd heard so many positive things about Thomas Perry, and especially of "Butcher's Boy", that I was really looking forward to reading Sleeping Dogs (the sequel to "Butcher's Boy"). Perhaps my expectations were too high, as I found it good, but not great, fiction. The main character -in fact the original butcher's boy - is a "retired" assassin for the mob. Living incognito in England, he is forced to end his self-imposed exile through a series of accidental events. From there, our hero takes a death tour of what feels like the entire US, stopping long enough in each city to kill the resident mafia boss and as many of the local thugs who happen to get in the way. "Shaeffer" (or Wolfe, or ...) is the original one-man army - a killing machine who Rambo would die for. This, we are led to believe, is merely a diversion: both the syndicate and the feds believe it is just another mob war (For afterall, how could one man create such massive carnage across so many states?) Under the cover of this pseudo-war, Shaeffer is able to flee from both the bad guys and the Justice Dept, and vanish back into his life of peace and tranquility in England. If this all seems a bit unbelievable, it is. But "Dogs" is an entertaining story nonetheless. There are some interesting characters, some imaginative "hits", and enough action to hold interest and keep the pages turning. But neither the depth of plot nor the development of the primary chactacters reach the level of a four or five star read. Don't get me wrong - this is a much better way to pass a few hours than any of a similar genre from the best-selling authors (Patterson, Meltzer, Grisham...). But in the final analysis, I guess I was expecting just a little more meat from the "Butcher's Boy".

This sequel to the incredible "Butcher's Boy" is classic Perry. It involves an extended travel, continuous pursuit, detailed descriptions of the settings, and considerable, mostly believable carnage.

While "Dogs" is entertaining and suspenseful, it lacks the unique twist of "Butcher's Boy" wherein the reader finds himself rooting for someone who otherwise would be the bad guy.

It's an exicting read, but lacks the unique twist of its predecessor.

Thomas Perry's "Sleeping Dogs," the sequel to "The Butcher's Boy," opens ten years after the protagonist, a professional hit man, leaves the United States and settles in Bath, England. Posing as an expatriate American businessman named Michael Schaeffer, the fortyish butcher's boy has a beautiful and aristocratic girlfriend named Meg Holroyd and is beginning to let his guard down. One day, Meg drags Michael to Brighton for the races, where his luck runs out. An organized crime figure named Mario Talarese recognizes the butcher's boy from years back "as the hired specialist who had gone crazy years ago and whacked all those guys." This is an opportunity of a lifetime for Mario. If he can knock off the person who wreaked so much havoc, Mario's star would rise meteorically.

This unexpected development forces Michael to return to the United States and immerse himself once again in the world of murder and mayhem that he had hoped to leave behind. Fortunately, it seems that killing people is like riding a bicycle. You never quite forget how to do it once you have the knack. As in "The Butcher's Boy," almost everyone in "Sleeping Dogs" makes assumptions based on logic, but most of their theories turn out to be faulty. Rightly or wrongly, the butcher's boy has decided that certain people have to die in order to insure his safety. When he starts to implement his plan, Michael's quickness, ingenuity, determination, and experience with electronics and weaponry all stand him in good stead, just as they did in the past. Michael also takes this opportunity to learn more about his nemesis, Elizabeth Waring, who, as an analyst for the United States Justice Department with an expertise in organized crime, is one of the few people who appreciates his guile and daring.

Michael travels around the country, trying to tie up all of the loose ends that stand between him and the peaceful life he craves. Mob figures come out of the woodwork and, as usual, the protagonist boldly and audaciously takes them on. This is not a feel-good book in which morality and good-heartedness triumph, but it is entertaining in a quirky way. Perry's dry humor enlivens the proceedings considerably. For instance, a darkly comic sequence in New York City's Harlem has Michael negotiating with a clueless and arrogant street thug who has no idea how dangerous this benign looking dude really is. Another amusing scene shows sixty-six year old Carl Bala, a powerful capo serving life in prison, writhing in frustration after losing his umpteenth game of gin rummy to a fellow inmate. The author wryly notes, "Carl Bala hated losing more than he hated death." Nevertheless, he keeps playing and losing.

There are several jarring notes in this otherwise enjoyable novel: The "new Michael," who is civilized enough to sustain a long-term romantic relationship with a lovely young woman, does not quite jibe with the Michael who slaughters almost everyone who gets in his way. To be fair, he shows signs of mellowing, since he refrains from killing several people who are in his crosshairs. Another anomaly is the large number of coincidences that are essential elements of the incredibly convoluted plot. If you can suspend your disbelief long enough to buy these far-fetched scenarios, and if you have a higher than average tolerance for excessive violence, you will want to pick up this sequel to find out if one of the deadliest killers in the history of crime fiction succeeds in obliterating his foes.

Important note: You must read "The Butcher's Boy" before "Sleeping Dogs" in order to have any understanding of the characters as well as of and the sequence of events as they unfold.