This is the first book I’ve read by Thomas Perry. I will be downloading more.

His prose is lean, clean and typically understated.

Eddie’s Boy (2020) is one of the Butcher’s Boy series.

… the third sequel to “The Butcher’s Boy,” after “Sleeping Dogs” and “The Informant,” and everything that happens in this book proceeds directly from the events of that first novel.

The title character is a man who calls himself Michael Schaeffer.

Orphaned in adolescence, he was raised by Eddie Mastrewski, a Pittsburgh butcher who was also an accomplished — and much sought after — hit man.

Trained from an early age in both professions, “Michael” became a perfect — and perfectly remorseless — killing machine, lending his peculiar talents to anyone willing to pay. …

The opening sentence of “Eddie’s Boy” sets the stage for what will follow: “Michael Schaeffer had not killed anyone in years, and he was enraged at the fact that he’d had to do it again tonight.” …

Washington Post review