The “Eddie” in EDDIE’S BOY is none other than a now-deceased Pittsburgh butcher, Eddie Mastrewski, who long ago adopted a suddenly orphaned boy named Michael Schaeffer. Eddie schooled Michael in the butchering trade, from the cutting and the weighing and the keeping of accounts to the delivery for special customers. He also initiated the youngster in the art of his second, down-low job: being a hitman-for-hire for La Cosa Nostra.

EDDIE’S BOY is the fourth book in Thomas Perry’s Butcher’s Boy series. While it does not contain a lot of surprises, there are revelations, action and munitions galore, with enough of all three to satisfy even the most jaded thriller reader.

"While [EDDIE'S BOY] does not contain a lot of surprises, there are revelations, action and munitions galore, with enough of all three to satisfy even the most jaded thriller reader."

Perry does an exemplary job of bringing those who are new to the series, which started in 1982, into the fold and up to date. Michael has been aging naturally, so he is in his 60s in the book’s present while in his mid-to-late teens in the flashbacks, which are important as opposed to gratuitous. He is retired, happily married to an extremely wealthy woman, and living quietly in England. His past life seems to be behind him until he finds himself to be the target of an assassination plot. He goes into hiding but quickly discovers that the people after him appear to know where he is going almost before he does. It becomes clear to him that if he is to repel and ultimately stop the attacks, he must find out who is behind them.

The problem is that there is no shortage of suspects. Michael and Eddie made a great number of enemies over the years. In order to determine who is responsible, Michael needs to find out why and, more specifically, why now. He turns to an unexpected source for assistance and learns that the attempts on his life are motivated by practicality as well as revenge. He begins taking the fight to his pursuers, acting instead of reacting, all the time worrying if his wife is also a target and if he still possesses the sharpened skill set that has permitted him to live as long as he has. The only certainty is that Michael should never be underestimated.

EDDIE’S BOY sometimes reminded me of the John Wick movie franchise, in that Michael seems to jump into and out of lethal trouble with the adroitness of a younger (but not much younger) Keanu Reeves in the instantly iconic films. The idea of a thriller is to present how a protagonist gets out of a situation, and this book does not lack for situations. The narrative only drags a bit when it goes into detail about the different players in the LCN empire and their ever-changing alliances. This is a decidedly minor quibble, particularly in a novel loaded with action scenes and a charismatic hero pulling the trigger. Perry also provides readers with a number of life lessons that could be kept in good stead by anyone, even if they don’t constantly have a target on their backs.

Should you decide to read EDDIE’S BOY (and you should), you will want to leave yourself time for the three books in the series that precede it, as well as the other titles in Perry’s considerable backlist. There isn’t a bad one in the lot.