THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE **AUTHOR'S FIRST BOOK** por Higgins, George V - 1972

Westminister, Maryland, U.S.A.: Alfred A Knopf Inc, 1972. First edition, so stated. Trace of sunning at edges of publishers green cloth, else about fine dust jacket, very lightly soiled at rear, not price clipped, $5.95 intact, in protective mylar cover. AUTHOR'S FIRST BOOK. Cover illustration by Hal Siegal. The best and worst of the Boston mobs. The eponymous Eddie Coyle is a typical Higgins Everyman, a fringe player for the Boston mob whose life is spiraling out of control. In addition to the usual stress of a life lived on the edge, Eddie is about to face sentencing for his role in an aborted hijacking. Nothing works exactly as planned, and Eddie soon finds himself a marked man, trapped in a web of coincidental occurrences and conflicting agendas. Basis for the 1973 film directed by Peter Yates and starring Robert Mitchum and Peter Boyle. In the 40th Anniversary edition of The Friends of Eddie Coyle, in the introduction by Dennis Lehane, he cites it as an inspiration for the great Elmore Leonard, and states that it's "quite possibly one of the four or five best crime novels ever written". And it turns out, the aforementioned Elmore Leonard -- he thought it was the BEST crime novel ever written.. First Edition. Hard Cover. Near Fine/Fine. Illus. by Siegal, Hal. Book.