The Friends of Eddie Coyle

⚖The case for it

Almost entirely dialogue, a symphony of Boston underworld voices. Higgins, a former assistant US attorney, wrote the most authentic crime novel ever produced by an American, depicting small-time criminals with no romanticism. Elmore Leonard, Dennis Lehane, and The Wire's David Simon all cite it as the essential influence.

— the canon

✕The case against

Dialogue carries everything, which means nothing carries you: no exposition, no interiority, no help telling one gravel-voiced Boston lowlife from another. Misread one conversation and you've lost the plot, such as it is, since Higgins renders even the climax in a sentence or two. Women appear mostly to make sandwiches and be lied to.

— the honest librarian