The Friends of Eddie Coyle by George V. Higgins

#2/2012:


The Friends of Eddie Coyle by George V. Higgins

In the introduction to my copy of this book, Dennis Lehane (author of many Boston crime classics such as Gone Baby Gone, Mystic River, and Shutter Island) writes:

You hold in your hands the game-changing crime novel of the last fifty years. It is also quite possibly one of the four or five best crime novels ever written. It casts such a long shadow that all of us who toil in the genre known as American noir do so in its shade. Same goes for all of us who write novels set in Boston. How can a slim book with minimal description and no heroes lay claim to the status of modern masterpiece?

That right there is all you need to know about this book before you read it. Go read it.