Sleeping Dogs » (Unabridged)

THOMAS PERRY is the author of the Jane Whitefield series as well as the best-selling novels Nightlife, Death Benefits, and Pursuit, the first recipient of the Gumshoe Award for Best Novel. He won the Edgar Award for The Butcher's Boy, and Metzger's Dog was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. He lives in Southern California.

Michael Kramer has had the pleasure of narrating the works of many wonderful authors. He has received Audiofile magazine's Earphones Award for the Kent Family series by John Jakes and for Alan Fulsom's The Day After Tomorrow. He also narrates books for the Library of Congress's Talking Books Program for the blind and physically handicapped. Kramer also works as an actor in the many theatres of the Washington, D.C. area, where he lives with Kate and their two children, Henry and Vivian.

In this sequel to the Edgar Award-winning "The Butcher's Boy," Perry's highly skilled mob hit man returns to the United States with more reasons to kill—until the odds turn terrifyingly against him.

Publishers Weekly

Much of the action in Perry's disappointing follow-up to The Butcher's Boy remains jumpy and disjointed as former hitman Michael Schaeffer, aka Charles Frederick Ackerman, William Wolf or Butcher's Boy, is brought out of hiding in England. Ten years have passed since Schaeffer foiled the attempt of mob employer Carlo Balacontano to have him killed in lieu of payment and then framed the Mafia boss for a particularly grisly murder. As this story opens, Schaeffer avoids an assassination attempt at the Brighton racetrack and realizes his cover has been blown. He returns to New York to find out who ordered the hit and how many bad guys may still be after him. Despite the lurid fascination of the characters' pasts, the plot seems more to congeal than thicken as Schaeffer tries to dispose of or evade all who might be on his trail, including Justice Department lawyer Elizabeth Waring, so that he can retire again to the English countryside. With heroes and villains so easily interchangeable, readers may wonder who they should root for, and why. 50,000 first printing. (Apr. )