Michael Shaeffer is a retired American businessman, living peacefully in England with his aristocratic wife. But her annual summer party brings strangers to their house, and with them, an attempt on Michael's life. He is immediately thrust into action, luring his lethal pursuers to Australia before venturing into the lion's den--the States--to figure out why the mafia is after him again, and how to stop them.
... an unanticipated but welcome series entry ... Few authors write action sequences, build suspense and spring surprises as well as Mr. Perry. And few readers will expect anyone who’s roused Schaeffer’s alarm to escape his fatal attentions.
If fans of Perry’s novels think the plot of Eddie’s Boy, closely resembles the last two butcher’s boy books, they’d be right, but the saving grace is in the differing details, including how Shaeffer confronts the challenge of engaging in combat with a fit but aging body ... And there is certainly much to admire in the skill with which Perry works, from his flawless plotting to his tight and muscular prose style.
One of Perry’s unique talents is his ability to tell what is essentially the same story over and over again, while continually finding ways to make it fresh and absorbing ... Perry is not a particularly colorful or flamboyant stylist. His prose is lean, clean and typically understated. Its precise, level tone and attention to detail lend his narratives a force and immediacy that compel our attention. If he has ever written a bad, dull or disappointing book, I haven’t seen it. This dark but illuminating return to his fictional roots is Perry at his representative best. It rarely gets better than that.
