The Friends of Eddie Coyle
by George V. Higgins
Buy on Amazon"Eddie Coyle is a small-time punk with a big-time problem - who to sell out to avoid being sent up again. Eddie works for Jimmy Scalisi, supplying him with guns for a couple of bank jobs. But a cop named Foley is onto Eddie, and he's leaning on him to finger Scalisi, a gang leader with a lot to hide. And then there's Dillon, a full-time bartender and a part-time contract killer pretending to be Eddie's friend. These and others make up the bunch of hoods, gunmen, thieves, and executioners who are wheeling, dealing, chasing, and stealing in the underworld of Eddie Coyle."--BOOK JACKET.
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"“The Friends of Eddie Coyle,” by George V. Higgins."
By the Book: Dennis Lehane · nytimes.com
"George Pelecanos's crime novels are set in Washington, D.C. Pelecanos's best are comparable to George V. Higgins's 1970 masterpiece, "The Friends of Eddie Coyle.""
By the Book: George F Will · nytimes.com
"George V. Higgins, mainly for "The Friends of Eddie Coyle," with its low-stakes streetpolitik and its ear-perfect (and endless) dialogue."
By the Book: Richard Price · nytimes.com
"This is a thriller that really captures the low-rent squalor of most criminals’ lives and the cynicism of the police and the lawyers. It’s about the kind of trade-offs that people make. Coyle is sold down the river by his friends and you see how the police and the lawyers co-exist with the criminals and the symbiotic relationships between these walks of life. He was assistant district attorney in Boston for years. It’s the first book, I think, that captures how things really are and it’s stylistically interesting because most of the text is dialogue. He conveys the sense of place and the information so efficiently and effectively that you understand what these people and these lives are like."
Trial By Jury · fivebooks.com