Cogan's Trade
Cogan's Trade
Author: George V. Higgins
Desc: 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