Sleeping Dogs (1992) is a sequel to The Butcher’s Boy, set 10 years later.

The anti-hero contract killer has left the United States and is living in England, hopefully safe from America’s organized crime,which he decimated and alienated in the first book.

He is recognized quite by accident by a minor American crime figure while at the track in Brighton, and the mobster has the bad judgement to attempt to enhance his standing by counting coup. The results are predictable. …

The whole book is a tragicomedy of errors, with the Butcher’s Boy, the mob, and various law-enforcement agencies assuming motivations and intentions on the parts of the other players that are completely erroneous, and result in much quite unnecessary mayhem. …

A Review by Barry Gardner: THOMAS PERRY – Sleeping Dogs.

The characters aren’t unreliable. Rather they quite logically guess what is happening — and are dead wrong most of the time.

It’s an original book. But not quite as good as Butcher’s Boy, in my opinion.

I will go on to the last 2 books in the series:

• The Informant (2011)
• Eddie’s Boy (2020)