The Easiest Thing In the World: The Unpublished Fiction of George V. Higgins

by George V. Higgins, Robert B. Parker (Introduction), Matthew J. Bruccoli (Editor)

George V. Higgins, the poet laureate of Boston’s criminal underworld, has written such classics of the genre as Cogan’s Trade, At the End of the Day, and The Friends of Eddie Coyle—the inspiration for the classic Robert Mitchum film. His dystopic Boston is filled with low-down hoods, crooked fuzz, and ruthless crime bosses, all brought to life by Higgins’s trademark a pitch-perfect rendering of the criminal vernacular that hits as hard and cuts as deep as the brass knuckles and switchblades wielded by his creations. The Easiest Thing in the World is a riveting collection comprised of stories, film treatments, and two never-before-published novellas. It’s the kind of stuff we’ve come to expect from tales of corruption and revenge, wrapped in sizzling dialogue and a wicked sense of humor. The Easiest Thing in the World is an indispensable addition to not only the Higgins library but also the canon of American crime fiction.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Crime

400 pages, Hardcover

First published November 2, 2004

About the author

George Vincent Higgins was a United States author, lawyer, newspaper columnist, and college professor. He is best known for his bestselling crime novels.

Reviews

[False · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a hodgepodge of things not published (for the most part) prior to Higgins death in 1999. Two of the short stories fall just short of being novellas. It's the type of dialogue you expect from Higgins, and the characters are the usual crooks and counselors. I spent time studying his use of dialogue (and dialect) and rhythms. Like Elmore Leonard, Higgins always uses "said," if a character speaks...they never "breathlessly" or "somberly"...they just "said." Good rule.