Publisher's Synopsis
Jackie Cogan is a hitman for the New England mob who has been enlisted to find out who pulled the latest heist at a criminal poker ring and "take care of them." A ruthless professional with the efficacy of a businessman and a sharp sense for recognizing other people's weaknesses, Cogan doesn't stop at finding the guilty parties and restoring honor to those who hired him. Lively dialogue, biting humor, and constant tension keep alive the suspense of a plot that unfolds in 1970s-Boston's criminal underworld-full of petty thieves, hired assassins, mobsters, and corrupt law enforcement. George V. Higgins's third novel, originally published in 1974, reinvented the noir crime genre. It is a raw and masterful tale of mob life and the men who sustain its power.
