George V. Higgins

Loyal to his boss, a chauffeur must keep the man's wife from revealing something damaging.

Twelve years ago Jerry Kennedy delivered his first report, Kennedy for the Defense, on being the classiest sleazy criminal lawyer in Boston, as Mack, his then-wife, called him. Seven years ago, Jerry called in again, with Penance for Jerry Kennedy. After that, things only got worse. Much worse. But in this latest dispatch, we learn that Jerry is digging himself out of a big hole, defending Billy Ryan - the longtime commissioner of Public Works has cut one shady deal too many. Battered Boston lawyers, like bargain diamonds, don't look so hot under strong white light - especially decades after they were newly cut and mounted. Though Jerry, brighter than most defense attorneys, has lost some of his luster, he knows enough to depend on friends - especially Bad-eye Mulvey, Cadillac Teddy, and one he didn't know he had: a heavy-hitter named Carlo. Jerry Kennedy also knows that the government can always get a public official if it really wants to - a situation made easier when a plea-bargaining crooked state legislator (Public Works Committee, natch) named Jack Bonaventre is in good voice. So Jerry digs in, looking hard for that edge to discredit the prosecution. The drama that follows in and around the Suffolk County Superior Court is vintage Higgins - the sort of stylish prose that prompted the London Sunday Times to say: "It used to be Henry James's town, now George V. Higgins has taken over Boston."

Jerry Kennedy is defending his accountant; a loyal, honest man unwilling to give evidence against a client. However, none of Kennedy's normal allies are being all that helpful.

No one likes Alexander Drouhin. Handsome, ruthless, and as smooth as a pool shark, Alex has built the largest and most successful sports agency in the nation from the ground up, leaving dissatisfied athletes and angry executives in his wake. Alex knows that greed can get you everything, but he never expected to get more than he bargained for. Surrounded by a motley staff of ex-football players and hungry junior agents, Alex is too busy closing the deal to notice that just about everyone, especially his own "associates," would be better off without him. So when Alex is found in his palatial mansion on the outskirts of Boston with a bullet in his head, there is no shortage of suspects - from pistol-packing limo drivers and bitter partners, to whining millionaire athletes. And by the time Lieutenant Francis Clay arrives on the scene, it appears that everyone has an alibi and no one has a clue.

The death of a television anchorman's family threatens to expose old secrets in a seaside town.

Henry Biggs, ex-baseball star, is being blackmailed by the Speaker of the House to run against a tough, honest congressional incumbent.

David and Frances are a middle-aged couple with problems - mostly David's. His bank is failing, as is his attention to the marriage. In the background there's a bank examiner named Clyde Ramsey with the moves of a bounty hunter ready to pounce. Frances, who has decided that a change of air just might break the tension, talks David into a transatlantic crossing on a deluxe ocean liner. But it's a dangerous game she's put into play, dangling the bait (whose name is Melissa) squarely in front of her unfaithful husband. No sooner have she and David settled themselves in the first-class dining saloon than a stranger appears at their table. It's no coincidence. Their dinner companion turns out to be a charming bounder named Burton Rutledge, the sort, David says, "who if he can convince us he's got plenty of money, then there's no way we'd suspect he might be after ours." Slowly, inexorably, like the first-growth clarets served at table, their offshore stories unfold to breathe with life and energy, enlivened every nautical mile by vintage Higgins dialogue.

The proprietor of a workingman's bar is given a Vegas trip, meant to entice businessmen into running up a debt with the Mafia. Now he owes them money, but even the Don is worried they might have difficulty collecting.

An honest man with few illusions that have gone unchallenged, criminal lawyer Jerry Kennedy is hard put to reconcile his professional life--defending car thieves, pimps, pushers, and mobsters--with his family life.

A collection of uncollected work by the master of crime fiction showcases Higgins's famous dialogue while also presenting his trademark humor and stories of revenge and corruption.

Deke Hunter is a Massachusetts State Police plainclothesman. He proves that through hard work, bumbling and pure luck, he can sometimes, surprisingly, produce justice.

Eager to contact her sister Ever, ghost Riley goes in search of the place where dreams are made, where she finds a renegade ghost boy who has been flouting the rules of Dreamland for decades.

A federal agent must find a gunner runner who is supplying the I.R.A. Unfortunately, he does not have either a name or face to start his investigation with.

"Every local police officer knows that Arthur McKeach and Nick Cistaro are the most prolific and ruthless practitioners of extortion, fraud, theft, bribery, assault, and murder in Massachusetts. What none of them know is how to stop these Michelangelos of crime. For thirty years the two have somehow eluded jail - or even arrest. McKeach and Cistaro have found a new and improved way to keep themselves safe from the organized crime unit of the FBI, which at the same time protects them from the occasional interference of the local police. Inspired by a true story, At End of Day lays bare not only the inner workings of a criminal empire, but also reveals the corruption at the heart of American law enforcement."--BOOK JACKET.

Includes twenty short stories by some of the best American writers.