Cogan's Trade

By George V. Higgins

Publisher Description

A hard-hitting, tour de force tale of the mob and the man who makes sure their rules are the only rules, by the American master of crime George V. Higgins.

Jackie Cogan is an enforcer, and when the mob's rules get broken, Cogan is called in to take care of business. This time a high-stakes card game has been held up by an unknown gang of thugs. Calculating, ruthless, businesslike, and with a shrewd sense of other people's weaknesses, Cogan plies his trade, moving among a variety of hoods, hangers-on, and big-timers, tracking those responsible, and returning "law and order" to the lawless Boston underworld.

Combining remarkable wit, crackling dialogue, and a singular ability to show criminal life as it is lived, George V. Higgins builds an incredible story of crime to an unforgettable climax.

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18 Reviews

3.5

matt mahoney

Created almost 3 years ago

Boyd94

Created about 3 years ago

K.Martin

Created over 3 years ago

Andrew Pendergrass

Created almost 4 years ago

“Another great Higgins, low life / crime Boston novel. The dialog is really what it's about here, but it is absolutely worth the whole. The story.... concerning knocking over a card game and trying to shift the blame to a specific target and then watching it all unspool is ... kind of messy. I found myself unsure where i was at in the story at various points as the author drops us into conversations @ the mid point - purposefully i think- and sometimes we are in the midst of a long story that is not part of our novel (dialog again). Slightly disorienting, but again- o so worth it for the great dialog.”

Andre Batista

Created over 4 years ago

About George V. Higgins

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.