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.

Eddie's Boy jumps between Michael's current predicament and the past, as we glimpse the days before he became the Butcher's Boy, the highly skilled hit man who exacted revenge on some double-crossing clients and started a mob war. He's meticulous in his approach as he attempts to pit two prominent mafia families against each other to eliminate his enemies one by one. But will he be able to escape this new wave of young contract killers, or will the years finally catch up to him?

Perry makes the distant past as vivid and immediate as the relentlessly paced present * Kirkus Reviews *
The best thing about Thomas Perry's thrillers are the devilishly ingenious schemes his protagonists devise to outwit their pursuers... Perry can really write * San Francisco Chronicle *
Perry is so skillful with the old chase-and-pursuit routine, creates such interesting characters, and writes about them so tellingly, one wants more immediately, not next year - right now * Boston Globe *

Thomas Perry is the bestselling author of thirty novels, including the Edgar Award-winning The Butcher's Boy, and The Old Man, recently adapted for television. His first Jane Whitefield novel, Vanishing Act, was named one of the 100 favourite mysteries of the twentieth century by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association. He lives in Southern California.