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. “Higgins writes about the world of crime with an authenticity that is unmatched.”—Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post
Cogan's Trade (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)
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Book Description
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“Higgins deserves to stand in the company of the likes of Chandler and Hammett as one of the true innovators in crime fiction.” —Scott Turow
"Higgins can plot a whole book like one long chase scene. He can write dialogue so authentic it spits." —Life
"The Balzac of the Boston underworld. ... Higgins is almost uniquely blessed with a gift for voices, each of them ... as distinctive as a fingerprint."—The New Yorker
“One of the great crime writers of the twentieth century.” —Kansas City Star
“Higgins writes about the world of crime with an authenticity that is unmatched.” --The Washington Post
“A uniquely gifted writer . . . who does at least as well by the Hogarthian Boston he knows as Raymond Chandler once did for Southern California.” —The New York Times
"Superb. . . Higgins is a complete novelist. His work will be read when the work of competing writers has been forgotten."—Chicago Daily News
"Brilliant. . . Higgins is a master stylist."--New York Post
“George V. Higgins’s mastery of the patois of the Boston criminal class is legendary.” —San Jose Mercury News --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
"Higgins can plot a whole book like one long chase scene. He can write dialogue so authentic it spits." —Life
"The Balzac of the Boston underworld. ... Higgins is almost uniquely blessed with a gift for voices, each of them ... as distinctive as a fingerprint."—The New Yorker
“One of the great crime writers of the twentieth century.” —Kansas City Star
“Higgins writes about the world of crime with an authenticity that is unmatched.” --The Washington Post
“A uniquely gifted writer . . . who does at least as well by the Hogarthian Boston he knows as Raymond Chandler once did for Southern California.” —The New York Times
"Superb. . . Higgins is a complete novelist. His work will be read when the work of competing writers has been forgotten."—Chicago Daily News
"Brilliant. . . Higgins is a master stylist."--New York Post
“George V. Higgins’s mastery of the patois of the Boston criminal class is legendary.” —San Jose Mercury News --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
About the Author
George V. Higgins was the author of more than twenty novels, including the bestsellers The Friends of Eddie Coyle, Cogan's Trade, The Rat on Fire, and The Digger's Game. He was a reporter for the Providence Journal and the Associated Press before obtaining a law degree from Boston College Law School in 1967. He was an assistant attorney general and then an assistant United States attorney in Boston from 1969 to 1973. He later taught Creative Writing at Boston University. He died in 1999.
--This text refers to an alternate
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Cogan's Trade was one of George Higgins' earlier crime novels written in the 1970s. It is uniquely written in that the text is almost all dialogue. It is a story of Boston area Irish-American lowlife mobsters and their escapades. It concerns the gunpoint robbery of a mob-protected high stakes card game and the mayhem that ensues. The characters are all quite colorful and their language captures the time and the mileu. It is a novel I've reread several times and throughly enjoyed each reading . Definitely recommended for aficionados of the hard-boiled school of crime novels.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
By Slim
Format:Paperback
The late George V. Higgins earned a reputation as a master of low-life dialogue. Entire chapters of his books were often conversations, sometimes essentially monologues. This was a risky way to write. Some readers found the endless talk tedious, and many (this reviewer included) found his output uneven.
Cogan's Trade was perhaps his best, a slender and deceptively simple tale of intramural activity of the Boston area mob. A web of connections determines who does what to whom as the title character emerges to become a grand inquisitor who forgot about the commandment that states "Thou shalt not kill." Jackie Cogan, compact and intense, is a cold-blooded paradigm of mob virtue, while other characters prove they're not as smart as they think they are.
The result is a suspenseful tale full of comic relief. Most readers are content to go along for the ride, but the repeat reader begins to see layers and symbolism in the this little masterpiece from "the Balzac of the Boston underworld."
Cogan's Trade was perhaps his best, a slender and deceptively simple tale of intramural activity of the Boston area mob. A web of connections determines who does what to whom as the title character emerges to become a grand inquisitor who forgot about the commandment that states "Thou shalt not kill." Jackie Cogan, compact and intense, is a cold-blooded paradigm of mob virtue, while other characters prove they're not as smart as they think they are.
The result is a suspenseful tale full of comic relief. Most readers are content to go along for the ride, but the repeat reader begins to see layers and symbolism in the this little masterpiece from "the Balzac of the Boston underworld."
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Mario Puzo gives us eloquent and artistic proses when unfolding a story of the Mafia, and underworld. George V. Higgins gives you the grit, the hard-boiled inner-workings of low on the totem pole true thugs. On reading the book, you feel like your sitting around the table listening to their conversation face to face. The author's gift of planting the reader on street level of day to day goings on of south Boston mobsters is astounding. George V. Higgins today, is quite underrated and thinly read. It's an abysmal shame.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Dalogue heavy
The conversations go on endlessly and veer the reader away from the plot. Granted, the dialogue is rich and hilarious at times but I would have liked a hint of description... Read more
Published 24 days ago by X
1.0 out of 5 stars
I didn't read this book. Just tired of trying to find a link to get...
Normally I wouldn't do this, but I got fed up clicking around on the Amazon site looking for a link to email customer service. I suppose they might bother to read this. Read more
Published 1 month ago by James Parker
4.0 out of 5 stars
Even better the second time around!
I read this book years ago and enjoyed it the same way I enjoyed the Friends Of Eddie Coyle which was also a movie by the same name. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Litcrit1
3.0 out of 5 stars
No. But I Read the Book
This book is now the movie "Killing Them Softly" with Brad Pitt, which I do want to see. I figured maybe I oughta read he book to see what it's all about. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Eric Sanberg
3.0 out of 5 stars
I could not finish it because of all the talking.
This is a fictional story about a card game robbery being investigated (to borrow a term) by Jackie Cogan, a mob enforcer. Read more
Published 3 months ago by The Thin Tow Man
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Book
This is a great book I do not know what all the bad reviews are about. People need more action I guess but that is not what the writing is about. It is about style and dialogue. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Nick Cullity
2.0 out of 5 stars
One long mumble
I can see how the movie "loosely-based" on this text succeeded. By being interesting, by depicting some graphic action scenes and by developing some salient characters.
Published 3 months ago by Stephen R. Tod
5.0 out of 5 stars
Masterpiece
George V. Higgins is the ultimate in dialogue driven fiction. I had read this years ago, but a recent film prompted me to get it and re-read it. Better than I remembered.
Published 3 months ago by Brewster Righter
5.0 out of 5 stars
review ---. good
The book is older but , for it's time , it was good.It was used for the movie with Brad Pitt.
Published 3 months ago by tom
3.0 out of 5 stars
Trading stories
Johnny Amato has a plan: he's going to hire a couple guys to knock over a mob poker game run by Markie Trattman. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Noel
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 1
book:
- The Friends of Eddie Coyle by George V. Higgins in Front Matter, and Back Matter
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