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katemoxie's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
- Loveable characters? N/A
5.0
thereclamationproject's review against another edition
3.0
http://knowthyself-mb.blogspot.com/2011/03/informant-by-thomas-perry.html
He pivoted to the left and brought the knife around so his body added force to the thrust, and the eight-inch blade was lodged to the handle in the space just below Delamina's rib cage. He stepped forward with it and pushed upward. As he did, he said quietly, "I'm the one you sent people to find. Go join them." Delamina went limp, fell to the kitchen floor, and lay there, his eyes open and losing focus.
This is the Butcher's Boy's first killing in Thomas Perry's new suspense thrill, The Informant. I've never read any of the previous Butcher's Boy novels, so it's my first time seeing the notorious hit man in action. Cold, calculated and lethal to say the least. The Butcher's Boy takes the old adage, 'if you're going to shoot, shoot" to heart. His philosophy is more, "if you're going to shoot, shoot and then shoot some more and maybe once again." But the Butcher's Boy never has to shoot more than is required because he's literally deadly with the gun and knife and whatever else he needs to end the other person's life. And yet, he's likable.
The Butcher's Boy, was trained to kill by Eddie Mastrewski, a butcher that took him in after his parents died when he was a child. By his mid-teens, the Butcher's Boy, begins going on assigments with Eddie, learning the skills and resources that will make him the most fearsome killer.
In The Informant, the Mafia is out to kill him at all costs. Twenty years ago he worked as a hit man for the Mafia in their most important and difficult murders and now they want him and all his secrets, dead. Frank Tosca wants to become the next leader of the new La Cosa Nostra and the best way to get there is to kill the Butcher's Boy. Tosca is a throwback to the Mafia of old, only he's more ruthless. But no one's as ruthless as the unnamed assassin, code name the Butcher's Boy.
But the Butcher's Boy has a strange partner along the way Justice Department's Elizabeth Waring. Though Waring and the killer never really form a partnership in the true sense, they do trade information that allows the other to keep on with their tasks; the Butcher's Boy killing the Mafioso and Waring, bringing the Mafioso down. For the past twenty years, Waring has worked at the Justice Department's Organized Crime and Racketeering Division and she knows all of the big time players in La Cosa Nostra. She's also familiar with the Butcher's Boy from his past dealings with the Mafia.
I question a few integral aspects of the book. Why does the Butcher's Boy have any care in the world for Waring? How does an Assistant DA not take a tip from Waring, the well respected twenty year veteran?
Perry may not have Lee Child's ability to create stories with finely tuned language, but in the end, this is a thriller that works. It worked enough that I'm excited to go back and see how this all started in Perry's first book in the series, aptly named, The Butcher's Boy.
*eBook provided for review courtesy of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and NetGalley
**Cover design by Brian Moore of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
He pivoted to the left and brought the knife around so his body added force to the thrust, and the eight-inch blade was lodged to the handle in the space just below Delamina's rib cage. He stepped forward with it and pushed upward. As he did, he said quietly, "I'm the one you sent people to find. Go join them." Delamina went limp, fell to the kitchen floor, and lay there, his eyes open and losing focus.
This is the Butcher's Boy's first killing in Thomas Perry's new suspense thrill, The Informant. I've never read any of the previous Butcher's Boy novels, so it's my first time seeing the notorious hit man in action. Cold, calculated and lethal to say the least. The Butcher's Boy takes the old adage, 'if you're going to shoot, shoot" to heart. His philosophy is more, "if you're going to shoot, shoot and then shoot some more and maybe once again." But the Butcher's Boy never has to shoot more than is required because he's literally deadly with the gun and knife and whatever else he needs to end the other person's life. And yet, he's likable.
The Butcher's Boy, was trained to kill by Eddie Mastrewski, a butcher that took him in after his parents died when he was a child. By his mid-teens, the Butcher's Boy, begins going on assigments with Eddie, learning the skills and resources that will make him the most fearsome killer.
In The Informant, the Mafia is out to kill him at all costs. Twenty years ago he worked as a hit man for the Mafia in their most important and difficult murders and now they want him and all his secrets, dead. Frank Tosca wants to become the next leader of the new La Cosa Nostra and the best way to get there is to kill the Butcher's Boy. Tosca is a throwback to the Mafia of old, only he's more ruthless. But no one's as ruthless as the unnamed assassin, code name the Butcher's Boy.
But the Butcher's Boy has a strange partner along the way Justice Department's Elizabeth Waring. Though Waring and the killer never really form a partnership in the true sense, they do trade information that allows the other to keep on with their tasks; the Butcher's Boy killing the Mafioso and Waring, bringing the Mafioso down. For the past twenty years, Waring has worked at the Justice Department's Organized Crime and Racketeering Division and she knows all of the big time players in La Cosa Nostra. She's also familiar with the Butcher's Boy from his past dealings with the Mafia.
I question a few integral aspects of the book. Why does the Butcher's Boy have any care in the world for Waring? How does an Assistant DA not take a tip from Waring, the well respected twenty year veteran?
Perry may not have Lee Child's ability to create stories with finely tuned language, but in the end, this is a thriller that works. It worked enough that I'm excited to go back and see how this all started in Perry's first book in the series, aptly named, The Butcher's Boy.
*eBook provided for review courtesy of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and NetGalley
**Cover design by Brian Moore of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
danchrist's review against another edition
4.0
Excellent final chapter of the Butcher Boy trilogy. Very satisfying.
mojoshivers's review against another edition
5.0
This was an excellent capper to an excellent trilogy. I don't know if there's going to be a sequel, but, as it is, this series ends on a high note. All the trademark elements are there, pages of meticulous planning and bits of improvising, punctuated by moments of sudden, violent scenes of action. Even Elizabeth manages to come into her own as a fully developed character in her own right rather than someone to act as the government foil, as she was in previous books.
I love this story and can't recommend it enough to anyone with a passing interest in crime fiction.
I love this story and can't recommend it enough to anyone with a passing interest in crime fiction.
jajorgen's review against another edition
5.0
Here's the review posted on my library's book reviews blog, MADreads:
http://www.madisonpubliclibrary.org/madreads/index.php/2011/04/26/what-was-i-waiting-for/
Thomas Perry has been writing mystery/thrillers since the early 80s and somehow I have never read one of his books. Not sure why. He's written a series of books with protagonist Jane Whitefield - an extremely competent woman who helps people in trouble disappear - that I've meant to read many times and somehow just never did. Recently I got a galley of his newest, The Informant, and finally had my chance to read what I've been missing. Turns out I've been missing out on a very good author. Good news is now I have a good-sized backlist to delve into.
The Informant is the third book in The Butchers Boy series. What's most interesting to me as a reader is that Perry has allowed the timeline in the books to match the timeline of publication. The Butcher's Boy came out 20 years ago (was in fact Perry's first book). That debut first introduced the killer for hire who runs afoul of the mob and his adversary Elizabeth Waring, an analyst in the Justice Department. 20 years later the assassin has been living a quiet life in Bath, England as Michael Schaeffer. He is forced out of retirement when a new mobster attempts to make a name for himself by killing the Butcher's Boy.
Schaeffer's return once again draws Elizabeth into the hunt for this killer who has always eluded capture. The problem for her is that while twenty years in the Justice Dept. have given her a chance to move up in the ranks, she's still just a civil servant as far as her new boss Dale Hunsecker is concerned. Hunsecker is a political appointee who attempts to hamstring Waring at every turn. Though her job may be in jeopardy, Elizabeth can't let the Butcher's Boy go one more time. If she can catch him, she can turn him into the best mob informant her department has ever seen.
Though I have not yet read the first two books in this series, I had no problem in following the action. Perry does a great job of setting the scene and drawing his characters. Though one is an assassin and the other a representative of the law, I found myself rooting for both Michael and Elizabeth and consider the best scenes in the book to be the ones where they are in each other's presence playing a cat and mouse game. Good stuff. I can hardly wait to go back and read how this relationship started.
So if you're like me and you haven't yet discovered Thomas Perry, wait no more. If you're someone who's been suggesting the author to me for years - and there are a couple of you - you were right and I was wrong. How about the rest of you? Are there authors you held off on reading that you later discovered that you loved? Anyone else I've been missing? I'm always looking for suggestions (even when it takes me time to read them).
http://www.madisonpubliclibrary.org/madreads/index.php/2011/04/26/what-was-i-waiting-for/
Thomas Perry has been writing mystery/thrillers since the early 80s and somehow I have never read one of his books. Not sure why. He's written a series of books with protagonist Jane Whitefield - an extremely competent woman who helps people in trouble disappear - that I've meant to read many times and somehow just never did. Recently I got a galley of his newest, The Informant, and finally had my chance to read what I've been missing. Turns out I've been missing out on a very good author. Good news is now I have a good-sized backlist to delve into.
The Informant is the third book in The Butchers Boy series. What's most interesting to me as a reader is that Perry has allowed the timeline in the books to match the timeline of publication. The Butcher's Boy came out 20 years ago (was in fact Perry's first book). That debut first introduced the killer for hire who runs afoul of the mob and his adversary Elizabeth Waring, an analyst in the Justice Department. 20 years later the assassin has been living a quiet life in Bath, England as Michael Schaeffer. He is forced out of retirement when a new mobster attempts to make a name for himself by killing the Butcher's Boy.
Schaeffer's return once again draws Elizabeth into the hunt for this killer who has always eluded capture. The problem for her is that while twenty years in the Justice Dept. have given her a chance to move up in the ranks, she's still just a civil servant as far as her new boss Dale Hunsecker is concerned. Hunsecker is a political appointee who attempts to hamstring Waring at every turn. Though her job may be in jeopardy, Elizabeth can't let the Butcher's Boy go one more time. If she can catch him, she can turn him into the best mob informant her department has ever seen.
Though I have not yet read the first two books in this series, I had no problem in following the action. Perry does a great job of setting the scene and drawing his characters. Though one is an assassin and the other a representative of the law, I found myself rooting for both Michael and Elizabeth and consider the best scenes in the book to be the ones where they are in each other's presence playing a cat and mouse game. Good stuff. I can hardly wait to go back and read how this relationship started.
So if you're like me and you haven't yet discovered Thomas Perry, wait no more. If you're someone who's been suggesting the author to me for years - and there are a couple of you - you were right and I was wrong. How about the rest of you? Are there authors you held off on reading that you later discovered that you loved? Anyone else I've been missing? I'm always looking for suggestions (even when it takes me time to read them).
caroparr's review against another edition
3.0
The final penultimate book in this trilogy, sadly, with the fourth one published last year! The BB gets more entangled with DOJ staffer Elizabeth in this one, and it brings both of them closer to danger. The middle sagged a bit - so very many murders, each done differently but so skillfully that it became repetitious - but the ending was terrific. 3.5
usbsticky's review against another edition
4.0
I read the last book in this series first, then #1, #2 and #3. I liked #4 very much. I only gave #2 and #3 three stars. This one is better than the first 2.
Spoilers below:
I highly recommend reading these books in order. In all the books there is some continuity issues where something said in one book doesn't match the same thing in another. For example the depiction of the Cathead Malone hit is slightly different. But to be honest, doesn't really detract from the series, though just seems badly edited or sloppy.
The reason why I like this one better maybe because the author has improved his writing over time or because the author has gone back to the basics of just having the killer of doing hit after hit. After all, he's a killer, so fugetabout making the story cute or adding complexities to it. I still don't like the changing POV (between the killer and Waring). Waring's POV (Dept of Justice) is just not necessary. One thing which I didn't really like was making the killer too omnipotent, I mean he's basically capable of getting into any house/fortress and killing any number of people, it's just too easy. But on the other hand, I enjoyed it. I will be checking his other books now.
Spoilers below:
I highly recommend reading these books in order. In all the books there is some continuity issues where something said in one book doesn't match the same thing in another. For example the depiction of the Cathead Malone hit is slightly different. But to be honest, doesn't really detract from the series, though just seems badly edited or sloppy.
The reason why I like this one better maybe because the author has improved his writing over time or because the author has gone back to the basics of just having the killer of doing hit after hit. After all, he's a killer, so fugetabout making the story cute or adding complexities to it. I still don't like the changing POV (between the killer and Waring). Waring's POV (Dept of Justice) is just not necessary. One thing which I didn't really like was making the killer too omnipotent, I mean he's basically capable of getting into any house/fortress and killing any number of people, it's just too easy. But on the other hand, I enjoyed it. I will be checking his other books now.
fancybone's review against another edition
4.0
A good conclusion to the story that spans decades, although the end felt a bit rushed.
ecari's review against another edition
3.0
This was a solid third in the Butcher's Boy series, but I didn't enjoy it as much as the others. I was bit irritated with some danging plot lines from the previous 2 novels and was not fully on board with the premise for the Butcher's Boy's return in this version. But Perry continues to deliver exciting page turners - a good listen.