George V. Higgins Books In Order

Jerry Kennedy Books In Publication Order

  1. Kennedy for the Defense (1981)
  2. Penance for Jerry Kennedy (1985)
  3. Defending Billy Ryan (1992)
  4. Sandra Nichols Found Dead (1996)

Standalone Novels In Publication Order

  1. The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1970)
  2. The Digger’s Game (1973)
  3. Cogan’s Trade (1974)
  4. A City on a Hill (1976)
  5. The Judgment of Deke Hunter (1978)
  6. Dreamland (1978)
  7. A Year or So with Edgar (1979)
  8. The Rat on Fire (1981)
  9. The Patriot Game (1982)
  10. Choice of Enemies (1983)
  11. Impostors (1986)
  12. Outlaws (1987)
  13. The Sins of the Fathers (1988)
  14. Trust (1989)
  15. Victories (1990)
  16. The Mandeville Talent (1991)
  17. Bomber’s Law (1993)
  18. Swan Boats at Four (1995)
  19. A Change of Gravity (1997)
  20. The Agent (1999)
  21. At End of Day (2000)

Short Stories/Novellas In Publication Order

  1. Old Earl Died Pulling Traps (1984)

Short Story Collections In Publication Order

  1. The Easiest Thing In the World (2004)

Non-Fiction Books In Publication Order

  1. Friends of Richard Nixon, The (1976)
  2. Style Versus Substance (1984)
  3. Wonderful Years, Wonderful Years (1988)
  4. The Progress Of The Seasons (1989)
  5. On Writing (1990)

Anthologies In Publication Order

  1. Boston Noir 2 (2012)

Jerry Kennedy Book Covers

Standalone Novels Book Covers

Short Stories/Novellas Book Covers

Short Story Collections Book Covers

Non-Fiction Book Covers

Anthologies Book Covers

George V. Higgins Books Overview

Kennedy for the Defense

Attempting to spend a quiet family vacation at the shore at Green Harbor, Jerry Kennedy, the classiest sleazy criminal lawyer in Boston, finds his peace disrupted by a midnight intruder with murder on his mind.

Defending Billy Ryan

Boston lawyer Jerry Kennedy may be in over his head when he decides to defend the city’s commissioner of Public Works on bribery charges. By the author of Kennedy for the Defense.Tour.

Sandra Nichols Found Dead

Judge Henry Lawler has his own reasons for appointing his former classmate Jerry Kennedy to try the case of Estate of Sandra Nichols v. Peter Wade. With alibis easy to come by, Peter Wade, Sandra’s most recent ex, is the most likely suspect he has motive, means, and opportunity. Jerry goes about his task with typical aplomb in this marvelous and intriguing entertainment.

The Friends of Eddie Coyle

The classic novel from ‘America’s best crime novelist’ Time, with a new introduction by Dennis LehaneGeorge V. Higgins’s seminal crime novel is a down and dirty tale of thieves, mobsters, and cops on the mean streets of Boston. When small time gunrunner Eddie Coyle is convicted on a felony, he’s looking at three years in the pen that is, unless he sells out one of his big fish clients to the DA. But which of the many hoods, gunmen, and executioners whom he calls his friends should he send up the river? Told almost entirely in crackling dialogue by a vivid cast of lowlifes and detectives, The Friends of Eddie Coyle is one of the greatest crime novels ever written.

Cogan’s Trade

Cogan’s Trade is the top notch crime novel rated by the New Yorker as the ‘best’ from ‘the Balzac of the Boston underworld.’ Crackling dialogue, mordant humor, and unremitting tension drive the suspenseful stakes of the game higher in Boston’s precarious underworld of small time mobsters, crooked lawyers, and political gofers as George V. Higgins, the writer who boiled crime fiction harder, tracks Jackie Cogan s career in a gangland version of law and order. For Cogan is an enforcer; and when the Mob s rules get broken, he gets hired to ply his trade murder. In the gritty, tough talking pages of Higgins s 1974 national best seller, Cogan is called in when a high stake card game under the protection of the Mob is heisted. Expertly, with a ruthless businessman s efficiency, a shrewd sense of other people s weaknesses, and a style as cold as his stare, Cogan moves with reliable precision to restore the status quo as ill conceived capers and double dealing shenanigans erupt into high voltage violence.

The Rat on Fire

It sometimes seems like a good idea to put a match to the problem you’d most like to be without. When it’s a slum full of blacks who don’t pay the rent, and your buildings are all insured, then it’s the best idea of all. But if you pay Jimmy and Leo to do it for you, you may find you’ve got another problem. One of the best loved titles from this American master of literary low life.

The Mandeville Talent

Joe Corey, a promising young Manhattan attorney, gets drawn into an unsolved murder that happened 23 years ago. It’s against his better judgment, but this is no ordinary crime. The victim is his wife’s grandfather, Jim Mandeville, once president of a small town New England bank. What was it that compelled Mandeville to go to the bank at 5:30 that cold December morning to be killed by his own 12 gauge shotgun? It’s up to Corey and his flamboyant sidekick, Baldo Lanucci, retired intelligence agent, to reheat cold leads and when they do, things turn hotter than anyone ever expected! ‘Flawless. Never a false word, phrase or rhythm.’ The New Republic

Bomber’s Law

The new commanding officer of the Detective Division at state headquarters in Boston, Brian Dennison begins to suspect that his predecessor, Bomber Lawrence, was in league with a notorious mobster.

Swan Boats at Four

Aboard a deluxe ocean liner, a middle aged couple with financial and marital problems are pigeonholed by a charming confidence man with a mission, and the three exchange revealing stories about their lives.

A Change of Gravity

Ambrose and Dan are long serving members of the FBI as well as lifelong friends. A Grand Jury is about to indict Dan for fraud and wants Ambrose to dish the dirt. Dan doesn’t know who has accused him or why, but his list of suspects includes his ex wife as a strong contender.

At End of Day

Every state police officer in Boston knows that Arthur McKeach and Nick Cistaro are the most prolific and ruthless practitioners of extortion, fraud, theft, bribery, assault, and murder in the area. What none of them know is how to stop these Michelangelos of crime, who for thirty years have eluded jail and even arrest. Their secret is at the heart of George Higgins’s most searing and shocking dissection of the criminal life yet. At End of Day lays bare not only the inner workings of a criminal empire, but also reveals the corruption at the heart of American law enforcement. Few writers have mapped the intricate highways and byways of crime with equal vividness and elegance, and with At End of Day, Higgins has created a cast of characters to match his unique gifts. McKeach and Cistaro stand shoulder to shoulder with any of Eddie Coyle’s friends, and their story solidifies George Higgins’s place in the forefront of novelists who write about crime in America.

The Easiest Thing In the World

George V. Higgins, the poet laureate of Boston’s criminal underworld, has written such classics of the genre as Cogan s Trade, At the End of the Day, and The Friends of Eddie Coyle the inspiration for the classic Robert Mitchum film. His dystopic Boston is filled with low down hoods, crooked fuzz, and ruthless crime bosses, all brought to life by Higgins s trademark dialogue: a pitch perfect rendering of the criminal vernacular that hits as hard and cuts as deep as the brass knuckles and switchblades wielded by his creations. The Easiest Thing In the World is a riveting collection comprised of stories, film treatments, and two never before published novellas. It s the kind of stuff we ve come to expect from Higgins: tales of corruption and revenge, wrapped in sizzling dialogue and a wicked sense of humor. The Easiest Thing In the World is an indispensable addition to not only the Higgins library but also the canon of American crime fiction.

Wonderful Years, Wonderful Years

The author of 18 remarkable bestsellers, George V. Higgins is back with a stunning new story of a big league Bay State contractor who hired ex cons, operated on the raw edge of the law, and knew a secret that could blow the lid off a long hidden political scandal. Or so Justice Department prosecutors thought when they began building a case of bribery against self made millionaire Ken Farley.

The Progress Of The Seasons

Why do certain professional athletes achieve immortality and others don’t? With his sparkling, accurate prose, Higgins suggests some answers as he tells us about baseball and the ever trying Boston Red Sox, about family and continuity and the passage of the seasons, delightfully weaving them all together with his insightful observations.

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