Cogan’s Trade (aka Killing Them Softly) by George V. Higgins

Had I followed the sage advice of MRB friend Charlie Stella, I would have read this a couple years ago when he suggested that the wise consumer of crime fiction should (must) read George V. Higgins’ first 3 novel (Friends of Eddie Coyle, Cogan’s Trade and The Digger’s Game). I read Coyle, but never got to the other two. Now with the movie version coming out as Killing Them Softly with Brad Pitt (and the trailers looking pretty good; a Cannes selection), I decided to read this 1974 copyright in advance of seeing the movie.

Simple plot: Mob protected poker game in Boston gets robbed by a coupl’a kids and the guys, the guys that vouch for the game want to their guy to do somethin’ about these guys who did that thing to the game. Guy who runs the game actually did the same thing coupl’a years ago, so this guy is the prime suspect. Mob enforcer Cogan rolls in, asks questions, gets a coupl’a other guys to ‘talk’ to the guy who ran the game. Before long, bing, bing, bing. Problem solved.

What makes this interesting is less the plot and more the interaction amongst all the different guys who do this thing or that thing. While I’m not so OCD that I counted this up, but I would put money down that over 90% of the lines in this book are dialogue. Street tough, Boston-based, coercive exchanges about whether this guy can be trusted, or that guy who steals dogs to transport and sell in Florida, or getting laid, or what this guy likes, that guy drinks, other guy drives, another guy eats or sleeps or the 20 page chapters of 2 guys talking at a bar. This could easily be a play that takes place in 4 or 5 scenes, coupl’a bars, coupl’a cars, a parking lot, the poker game. Some of the more 1-sided conversations (that's code for one guy trying to intimidate and scare another guy) are single paragraphs that go for a couple pages. Higgins has (make that had) an amazing ear for the dialect of the era, much like Stella and Pelacanos have today. 

Now I’m not too bright. Unless I know ahead of time that a book is going to be funny, I frequently miss grasping the humor on the written page. This book is darkly funny. We are eavesdropping in on the mob culture of the day, wiping their angry spit off our shoulders, smelling this guy cooped up with a dozen dogs in a car to Florida, smelling the stale beer another guy is bitching about. I could go on and on.

Just be prepared, this isn’t like most mysteries. The dialogue is tough to get through because folks like the MRB boys didn’t grow up with this dialect. But give it time. It really is worth your effort. (p.s. apparently, the story has been update to current day for the movie. It'll be interesting to see how Hollywood treats this book and how loyal they will be to the real meat and potatoes of the story - the verbal exchanges). 

And before you say ‘You shouldn’t’ve turned a deaf ear to me,’ Sig. Stella, I’ve ordered The Digger’s Game from the library.

East Coast Don