The Informant

Starred review from March 7, 2011
Edgar-winner Perry's excellent third Butcher's Boy novel (after Sleeping Dogs) pits the Butcher's Boy (aka Michael Schaeffer), an impeccably effective hit man, against his old nemesis, Elizabeth Waring, an impeccably honest Justice Department official. Though Waring's boss, arrogant political appointee Dale Hunsecker, tries to hamstring her, Waring wants to bolster her 20-year pursuit of Mafia bosses by turning the Butcher's Boy into America's most important informant. Waring soon enters into an intricate pas de deux with a man who considers death a buy-sell commodity. Meanwhile, this icy yet strangely appealing killer, who reads Waring as well as she reads him, methodically murders capo after capo and their "made men" across the country, the only way he can safely return to his quiet retirement in England with his beloved wife, Meg. Perry offers a compelling, rapid-fire plot, credible Mafia and FBI secondary characters, an indictment of self-serving officialdom, and the old soul-shattering moral dilemma: what is truth?

Michael Kramer's narration style complements the story of the Butcher's Boy, a professional hit man who was betrayed by the Mafia and exacted revenge by killing many of its members. Of course, those who remained left no stone unturned in their search for the killer, who has remained secluded for many years. Eventually, the Mafia finds him, and from that moment the novel takes off. Kramer tends to be low-key, using subtle changes in tone and inflection to define the characters, particularly organized crime prosecutor Elizabeth Waring. At times, however, Kramer embraces the story's emotional tides, fully defining Perry's characters and highlighting his well-written prose. D.J.S. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine