National Book Award FinalistWith a new introduction by Dennis LehaneElmore Leonard called The Friends of Eddie Coyle “the best crime novel ever written—makes The Maltese Falcon read like Nancy Drew." Time magazine lau**ded its author as** "America's best crime novelist."Picador celebrates the 40th anniversary of this semina...

A hard-hitting, tour de force tale of the mob and the man who makes sure their rules are the only rules, by the American master of crime George V. Higgins.Jackie Cogan is an enforcer, and when the mob's rules get broken, Cogan is called in to take care of business. This time a high-stakes card game has been held up by an unknown gang of thugs. Calculating, ruthless, businesslike, and with a shrewd sense of other people's weaknesses, Cogan plies his trade, moving among a variety of ...

Now a Major Motion Picture Starring Brad PittJackie Cogan is an enforcer for the mob. When a high-stakes card game is heisted by unknown hoodlums, Cogan is called in to “handle” the problem. Moving expertly and ruthlessly among a variety of criminal hacks, hangers-on, and bigger-time crooks—a classic cast of misfits animated by Higgins’s hilarious, cracklingly authentic dialogue—Cogan gets to the root of the problem and, with five consecutive shots from a Smith & W...

Gripping and entertaining, George V. Higgins delivers a compelling and uncomfortably realistic account of the way society and the law really function.It’s been a decade since the turbulent 60s and policeman John Richards still has to deal with a handful of leftover student radicals who continue to terrorize the Boston streets. In an effort to convict them once and for all, he liaises with ambitious lawyer Terry Gleason. Matters culminate one crisp Sunday morning when the s...

A riveting, blistering novel about the shady side of the law and the business side of the Boston underworld by the one and only George V. Higgins.Jerry Fein is a small-time lawyer, occasional booking agent, and full-time slumlord. But he’s nobody’s fool. So when the tenants of his dilapidated buildings refuse to pay rent because of rats, Jerry knows just the man to help him—Leo Proctor, a professional arsonist, who can make a fire marshal look the other way for a little cash. But t...

Sizzling with betrayal and murder, Higgins' tale is sprinkled with earthy dialogue and savvy characters. When Sandra Nichols, the wife of a wealthy businessman, is found dead in a Massachusetts wetland, respected criminal defense attorney Jerry Kennedy sheds his reclusive life to become her children's legal guardian. He digs for evidence and turns up a missing clue that begins a domino effect-exposing the killer.

In his final novel George V. Higgins provides us with yet another searing and enthralling dissection of the Boston underworld.Arthur McKeach and Nick Cistaro are notorious, especially to the Boston police department. Their reputations precede them as orchestrators of extortion, theft, fraud, bribery, assault and even murder. But for thirty two years, both have managed to elude the authorities. A profitable “arrangement” with the FBI, negotiated some thirty years previously, has kep...

A thrilling account of the ins and outs of the Suffolk County Superior Court, this novel is vintage George V. Higgins.The third installment in the Jerry Kennedy series finds the Boston lawyer defending his toughest client yet, Billy Ryan. But it’s a few years on and battered Boston lawyers don’t look so hot under strong white light. Seemingly not the man he was, Jerry has to dig deep to come out on top in discrediting the prosecution. He looks to the likes of Bad-eye Mulvey, Cadill...

The characters truly speak for themselves in George V. Higgins’ chilling tour de force about deceit, blackmail and the importance of paying one’s dues.Ultimate recidivist Earl Beale has learnt little from his early release from jail and narrow escape from being drafted, seemingly nothing can cure him of his criminal ways. Obsessed by money, and with a keen eye for scheming, he’s the kind of car salesman no one can trust. When suddenly some unfinished business from his past catches ...

A masterwork of crime and black comedy, George V. Higgins is in his element as he spell-bindingly recounts lawyer Jerry Kennedy’s more fragrant cases.Keen to take some time off, Jerry Kennedy plans a short holiday en famille at Green Harbor, his eclectic clients don’t get the memo however. His drive-by clientele, the car thieves, pimps, drug dealers and boatyard mechanics are diverse in all respects but one, persistence. Matters come to a head when a midnight intruder brea...

Jerry "Digger" Doherty is an ex-con and proprietor of a workingman's Boston bar, who supplements his income with the occasional "odd job," like stealing live checks and picking up hot goods. His brother’s a priest, his wife’s a nag, and he’s got a deadly appetite for martinis and gambling. But when the Digger looses eighteen grand in borrowed money on a trip to Vegas, he quickly finds himself in the sights of mob loneshark “the Greek,” who will have to make the Digger pay up one way or ano...

Fast-talking, hard-living politicians, priests, smugglers and thieves play the game of the Boston streets in George V. Higgins’ The Patriot Game.Federal agent Pete Riordan is as tough as they come; he’s six-foot-four with a bad knee and a mean temper, but his commitment to his job is beyond exemplary. When he is called upon to find the man delivering arms to the I.R.A. he takes to with gusto. Little did he know it’d be such a guessing game; bar proprietor Digger Doherty is...