'The best crime novel ever written' - Elmore Leonard'If you haven't read George V.Higgins you can't call yourself a fan of crime fiction' Val McDermid'Higgins deserves to stand in the company of Chandler and Hammett as one of the true innovators in crime fiction' Scott TurowWhen 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.