Customer Reviews

The Rat On Fire

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This novel deals with some would-be arsonists, a corrupt fire marshal, and the cops trying to catch them. It's a good, ingenious story, but the real reason to read it is the side-splitting dialogue. Politically incorrect, but hilarious. The Rat on Fire is one of the funniest books I've ever read. I will always be grateful to this book because it cheered me up at a time when I badly needed cheering up. The only flaw is on the very first page, where Higgins shifts scene a bit too abruptly, which is momentarily confusing. Nonetheless, I would recommend this book to anyone with a sense of humor. One of Higgins' best..

A small but complex story. The dialogue is hilarious, the characters interesting. Get your hands on a copy while you still can.

George V. Higgins' book, "The Rat On Fire' was excellent.
It did not sell well when written and was hard to find...
I ordered thru Amazon and got the best price from a book
dealer in England. Highly recommend the book to other
readers.

A fast read about the usual assortment of Boston lowlifes, corrupt attorneys and assorted sadsacks who inhabit the world of George Higgins. The witty dialogue is vintage Higgins. Highly recommended to all readers who like their crime novels gritty and hard-boiled.

Its typical George V. Higgins fare. The ending reminds me of Elmore Leonard's usual open-ended navel gazing but otherwise its funny and likely to distress PC lit perfessers. A Jewish lawyer wants out from under a rat infested rent controlled apartment building the tenents vandalize.

220 pages of people sitting around cussing and complaining. The main redeaming factor of the book is that it is short, and written at a 4th grade level; so you can get through it quickly. I would not recommend the book to a friend, and regret the time I wasted reading it.

In some ways, the book gives an more accurate picture of the criminal mind than most thrillers. The bad guys are ordinary people, living their lives, dealing with problems. They spend a great deal of time whining and complaining. The cops often have a good notion in advance about who is doing wrong. But also spend a great deal of their time engaged in bathroom banter.

The work fits somewhere between a dumb criminals web page and a second rate fiction novel. There are better books out there.