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The Friends of Eddie Coyle

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The Friends of Eddie Coyle

By: George V. Higgins
Narrated by: Mark Hammer
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About this listen

 When small-time gunrunner Eddie Coyle is convicted on a felony, he's looking at three years in the pen - that is, unless he sells out one of his big-fish clients to the DA. But which of the many hoods, gunmen and executioners he calls his friends should he send up river? Set on the mean streets of Boston and told almost entirely in crackling dialogue by a vivid cast of cops and lowlifes, The Friends of Eddie Coyle set a standard for authentically gritty crime fiction that has never been bettered.

Read by Mark Hammer. Narrator Mark Hammer came to Audiogooks with a long and distinguished career in the theater. He was a drama professor at Catholic University and a beloved acting coach at New York's Stella Adler Studio. He has appeared in major regional theaters and Broadway productions as well as on television and radio. Listeners and audio critics agree that the characters and regional dialects they hear in Mark Hammer's narrations are astounding. AudioFile touts this narrator as "one of the finest interpreters of our day."

(p) 2012 Recorded Books©1970 George V. Higgins Crime Fiction Crime Thrillers International Mystery & Crime Mystery Suspense Thriller & Suspense

Critic Reviews

The best crime novel ever written (Elmore Leonard)
A portrait of life on the street as realistic as any ever written (Dennis Lehane)
Higgins deserves to stand in the company of Chandler and Hammett as one of the true innovators in crime fiction (Scott Turow)
Higgins writes about the world of crime with an authenticity that is unmatched
If you haven't read George V. Higgins you can't call yourself a fan of crime fiction (Val McDermid)
No one ever did it better
All stars
Most relevant
A real struggle. The book is almost entirely dialogue and the narrator used the same voice for every character. Buy the book.

Ruined by poor narration

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A gritty novel about guns, robberies, and dogy crims set in Boston's Irish-American underworld.
The narrative is character-driven with lots of twists and turns, and mysterious enough to keep you guessing.
Higgins writes some of the best dialogue—a great mix of believability and coolness—and Mark Hammer's narration is the cherry on the sundae, although divisive judging from the other reviews I've read.
The burning question is: who can you trust?
This is the pinnacle of the crime/noir genre, and if you're a fan of Elmore Leonard and James Ellroy then you will love this.

Really engaging

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