Sat 30 May 2015
THOMAS PERRY – Sleeping Dogs. Butcher’s Boy #2. Random House, hardcover, May 1992. Ivy Books, paperback, April 1993.
Any book about an amoral contract killer must inevitably (in my mind, anyway) evoke memories of and be compared to Westlake/Stark’s Parker. Yes, I know that Parker was a thief rather than a hit man, and that strictly speaking more appropriate comparisons would be Estleman’s Macklin and Collins’ Quarry. I remain unrepentant, however, particularly in the case of novels where the hit man is pitted against the (or a) mob, such as this one is. Stark’s Butcher’s Moon was the single best story of this type that I have read.
Sleeping Dog is a sequel to Perry’s highly acclaimed The Butcher’s Boy of a decade ago, and takes place in approximately real time. The protagonist 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.
Our hero (who use smany names in the book) quite naturally misapprehends the situation, and assumes organized intent rather than the serendipitous recognition which was actually the case. Though out of the game for a decade, his reactions have not changed in speed or nature: when attacked, remove the source. He immediately embarks for America to do just that.
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.
Perry is in my opinion an excellent writer. He paces his story well, the prose is crisp and unobtrusive, and the character of the kller is much more fully realized than is typical. Another character, Elizabeth Waring an agent of the Justice Department who had a leading role in the first book,is reprised and is also beautifully done.
I am not sure that the ending of the book rang totally true; but then again, the character of an amoral killer is so alien to me that I won’t say it didn’t, either.
I thoroughly enjoyed it. If you haven’t read The Butcher’s Boy, you should do so first If you like Perry’s style, try Metzger’s Dog also. I found his Big Fish of slightly lesser quality, and didn’t like Island.
Bibliographic Note: A third book in the series has appeared since Barry write this review: The Informant, 2011.
Editorial Comment: My various tenures in DAPA-Em, where this review first appeared, overlapped Barry’s only slightly. Barry’s most recent review on this blog was of a Roger Zelazny fantasy hardcover, and at that point I had exhausted all of the reviews in the two mailings I had in hand.
But not all is lost, however! Many thanks to Richard Moore, who has supplied me with photocopies of Barry’s first three contributions to the apa, and to Thom Walls, who has allowed me to borrow all of the remainder of the mailings Barry’s zines appeared in before his untimely death in 1996. We will not run out of Barry’s reviews any time soon.
May 30th, 2015 at 4:36 pm
First reaction: What boring covers for this book.
Second thought: Can you think of another series character whose adventures were spread out as much as this?
The Butcher’s Boy, 1982.
Sleeping Dogs, 1992.
The Informant, 2011.
And a final one: How come I’m never read any of them?
May 30th, 2015 at 6:45 pm
Perry is a fine writer who luckily has a sense of humor as well as the skill to write action. His series bout Native American Jane Whitefield who helps people disappear was a favorite and most recently he wrote two entertaining entries in Clive Cussler’s Fargo series.
I like ISLAND much more than Barry, its about a couple who buy a remote island and set it up as an international money laundering and private banking empire ala the Caymans, then inevitably have trouble with the mob. METZER’S DOG, Metzger being a cat, is probably his best in my opinion though most would give that to BUTCHER’S BOY.
Perry ranks with Ross Thomas(like Thomas humor often comes to the fore without mitigating suspense or action) and Bill Grainger in my estimate with a touch of John D. MacDonald here and there, and is far above most thriller writers at it today, only Barry Eisler really comes close to the same quality for my money. Perry is simply one of the best thriller writers in the business.
I think I would start with METZGER or one of the Whitefield books though since BUTCHER’S BOY, good as it is and rightfully famous as it is, still isn’t quite typical Perry.
May 30th, 2015 at 7:46 pm
The covers sure do suck.
May 31st, 2015 at 12:09 am
Granted, the covers suck big time, and pretty much did for all his early work. I think they were trying to sabotage as much as promote his career.
May 31st, 2015 at 12:58 pm
Thomas Perry is one of my favorite authors. Ross Thomas is my favorite writer, no one else comes close. You can see some RT style in some of TP work. Both wrote for TV. Did you know both men wrote for the CBS TV series SIMON AND SIMON?
METZGER’S DOG is one of the greatest thrillers ever written. I haven’t been able to get into Jane Whitefield books as the new age Native American stuff gets in my way.
The Butcher Boy series waits in line to be read, but I did enjoy Joe Pitt in NIGHTLIFE.
I am reading BIG FISH now and find it the perfect example of the best and worst of Perry. He has Ross Thomas talent for odd but believable characters. The plot can wander (RT plots can be red herrings) and the prose is clever with humor (yet without jokes).
Prose is the biggest difference. There are times reading RT the writer in me stops in awe and jealously wish I could write like that. Perry does this in METZGER’S DOG, but hasn’t done it in anything I have read of his since.
The loose plot, and characters and prose that come close but fail to be irresistible makes Perry’s books easy for me to get bored and cast an eye to my waiting to-be-read pile of books.
May 31st, 2015 at 9:02 pm
I’ve read only the Jane Whitefield books by Perry, and while I enjoyed them, neither do I remember much about them. As for Ross Thomas’s book, I find something offputting about them, and I can’t seem to get into a sense of rhythm with them. Everybody else thinks there’s something wrong with me. They may be right.
May 31st, 2015 at 11:10 pm
Steve,
Thomas books are a mix of straight thriller, and a sly gag that seems to run through his whole output. It’s hard to describe, but some of his titles give you an idea. The Quincy and Durant books and the McCorkle and Padillo are the easiest to get into with maybe the two books as Oliver Bleek in the running there, but some of the books are as much political satire as thriller, THE FOOLS IN TOWN ARE ON OUR SIDE a good example both of titles and intent.
Anyway, I could never resist a writer who named a character Otherguy Overby and made you believe it.
The average Thomas title (and there is no such beast) is a cross between CASABLANCA, THE MALTESE FALCON, ADVISE AND CONSENT, and DR. STRANGELOVE. He’s the kind of writer who has one series character who is heir to the imperial throne of China and is partnered in a dubious kind of detective agency that does almost no detective work.
Maybe you had to catch the bug with the first few books as I did.
And I second METZGER’S DOG as Perry’s masterpiece. It’s the one book where everything that might be annoying in his work comes together perfectly.
May 31st, 2015 at 11:26 pm
6. Steve, acknowledging one has a problem is the first step in fixing that problem 🙂
What RT books have you read? Guessing from reading your reviews and comments over the years I bet you are a strong plot fan.
RT has plots but they can shift and occasionally disappear. The stories are heavy character based. The characters are never heroes and usually come with some self-loathing (especially St. Ives of the Oliver Bleeck books). People think RT writes spy thrillers but that is not always true. I also find him more interested in political culture and the insanity of government than in liberal or conservative points of view.
I don’t read mysteries to solve the mysteries but to enjoy the characters. If I had to cite the major reason I enjoy RT is how he writes sentences, the words he uses and the way he puts them all together with wit and talent that I can’t get enough.
May 31st, 2015 at 11:44 pm
My favorite passage from the Ross Thomas novel BRIARPATCH.
She turned and started down a long wide paneled hall lined with long narrow tables that held unused glazed vases. It was a very long hall, and if rest were needed, there were a dozen straight-back, dark wood chairs with faded red plush seats. On both walls were hung nicely done oil portraits of bearded men in nineteenth-century dress. The men all looked extremely proper and Dill was quite sure none of them was related in any way to either Ace Dawson ir Jake Spivey.”
The use of “if rest were needed” permanently etched envy into this failed writer’s heart.
June 1st, 2015 at 12:34 am
Well I have to tell you, Michael. Coincidences do happen. After my last comment, I went looking for a Ross Thomas book to read, and I will give you one guess as to which one I found first.
June 1st, 2015 at 2:09 am
I look forward to reading what you think of it. While David and I are fans not everyone agrees (or he’d be better remembered).
June 1st, 2015 at 6:34 am
I’d have to say THE FOOLS IN TOWN ARE ON OUR SIDE (a modern RED HARVEST) is my favorite Ross Thomas book, but all of them are worth reading. On Perry, I’ve read only a few, the Butcher’s Boy series and METZGER’S DOG.
June 1st, 2015 at 6:37 am
Barry Gardner was a shooting star in the DAPA-EM and mystery reviewing galaxy who went out way too soon. His reviews were sometimes better than the books he covered, and he had a way of making something seem worth your time even if there was the odd occasion (Kinky Friedman being one) where our tastes didn’t coincide.
June 1st, 2015 at 12:28 pm
13. Jeff Meyerson, Kinky is one of those authors you can like one moment then not be in the mood the next and then avoid the next.
I usually am a fan, but can agree with those who don’t like him (my guess Kinky would say the same thing).
I missed the DAPA-EM days (I was involved with the James Bond and comics fandoms at the time), but I enjoy the old reviews. I have seen out of date books, movies, and TV covered here, but have never read an out of date review yet.
June 1st, 2015 at 6:30 pm
Here’s Barry Gardner’s review of Kinky Friedman’s Elvis, Jesus & Coca Cola, posted here nearly five years ago:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=2131
June 1st, 2015 at 6:53 pm
Correction, that’s Artie Wu and Quincy Durant not Quincy and Durant.
Re Thomas, Steve, to quote Joyce I’m not trying to convert you or pervert myself, you may not like him. He has been compared to Hammett, unfairly limited as a spy novelist, and I think ignored as a humorist.
He’s a bit like imagining Mark Twain trying to write a modern thriller. I don’t know where it will go, but I want to go for the ride.
His best books have a fine grasp of politics by writer who somehow survived and thrived as a journalist on the Daily Oklahoman, a paper named the worst in the country by the Columbia School of Journalism. Even than Thomas was above that, respected like Bill Granger from a much better paper.
Thomas may be a taste you have to acquire, but once you do he’s addictive.
June 1st, 2015 at 8:06 pm
Barry Gardner loved the Ross Thomas novels as will be apparent as more of his reviews are published by Steve. One of his favorites was the one Jeff mentioned THE FOOLS IN TOWN ARE ON OUR SIDE, which Barry called “the quintessential Ross Thomas novel.”