Defending Billy Ryan [Audiobook, Large Print] [Audio Cassette]

George V. Higgins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1993

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. 30,000 first printing. Tour.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Higgins ( The Friends of Eddie Coyle ), once a Boston lawyer, is known for his talky novels. In the third Jerry Kennedy tale, his narrator-hero's speech is wonderful--he's a crackling, supple raconteur. Following a bruising, impoverishing divorce in early 1986, the veteran Kennedy's law practice is moribund until Massachusetts Superior Court Justice Colin Ryan asks him to defend his father, the state's public works commissioner from time immemorial, against charges of corruption. Everybody knows Billy Ryan has been skimming at the public trough for years, but now an ambitious prosecutor has found a state representative who is willing to testify against him in court. Kennedy's story slips between 1986 and the present (readers must pay close attention) as he tells how things get done in the Bay State: lawyers, politicians and Mafiosi scratch backs in various ways, and they talk and talk and talk, colorfully and gloriously. Higgins's subtle examination of Boston Irish society is as acute as any by John O'Hara or Louis Auchincloss, but funnier. (Irish Alzheimer's? "You forget everything but your grudges.") Billy's wake and funeral are delicious. Author tour.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Nobody doubts that state public works commissioner Billy Ryan tipped off cronies to where a new highway was going to cause land values to skyrocket. Certainly Jerry Kennedy, his lawyer, harbors no illusions, though he can hardly guess the depth of the corruption. This audiobook has much to offer. Don Feldheim's reading captures Kennedy as an intelligent raconteur. Through Kennedy, listeners gain insight into a defense attorney's mind and experience courtroom strategy. If, however, Kennedy fails to charm, he may strike listeners as a long-winded old poop, whose endless digressions attempt to hide the fact that he doesn't have much of a story to tell. While this audiobook lacks most of the elements that usually ensure widespread popularity (e.g., fast pace, suspense, plot), libraries where Higgins circulates well may still want to consider.
- John Hiett, Iowa City P.L.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: G K Hall Audio Books; large type edition abridged edition edition (June 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0783811128
• ISBN-13: 978-0783811123
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,753,542 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bittersweet. Engaging., August 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Defending Billy Ryan (Mass Market Paperback)

Higgins uses his trademark let-the-dialogue-tell-the-story method to its usual great aplomb. He also allows Jerry Kennedy to reflect more on his life in the law and on his own life in general. Since Higgins is a master storyteller, you will find yourself very drawn to Kennedy's observations, character sketches, accomplishments, challenges and disappointments.

There is hardly any courtroom drama (so stay away, it that is what you want), but there is a good helping in how Kennedy finds an angle to help him fight an impossible case.

3.0 out of 5 stars Be sure to read it anyways..., December 12, 2010

By 

Shamus - See all my reviews

This review is from: Defending Billy Ryan (Paperback)

The cover reviews have this book right as far as they go, describing the book with terms like authenticity...unmatched", "unerring", "marvellous", "flawless, and "incomparable." John Grisham is quoted as saying about George V. Higgins as being, "The best at writing about lawyers." To be as good s the reviewers maintain, however, Higgins would have to do more that tell us about lawyers and the law, he would have to tell a great story. In this he fails where Grisham always succeeds.

Billy Ryan was on trial for trading information on the proposed location of a highway for the profit of insiders. The legal battle revolved around whether the chief witness for the prosecution accepted a loan from Billy at one point, suggesting (somehow) that a preferential relationship existed between the two. The trouble is, that's not much of a story and the book digresses in endless directions to fill out a thin plot. Unlike a tightly plotted book these digressions are irrelevant. You can skip page after page without missing any action, except there really isn't any action to miss. With all these digressions it makes it difficult for the reader to remember characters and actions that are relevant to the real story.

The upside of the novel is that we find out more than Grisham tells us about the real guts of criminal law. We learn how judgeships are dolled out, how the lawyers exist in feast or famine, how prosecuting attorneys and defence lawyers research and lay traps for each other. Apparently they like to tease each other to pursue lines of questioning and thus open areas of rebuttal where they are more prepared than their opposition. We learn that charges of corruption are almost never plea bargained, because being partly corrupt ruins your career as being totally so.

The information about the law will stick with you, but not the story.