At End of Day

Arthur McKeach and Nick Cistero have been behind most of the loan-sharking, extortion, hijacking, illegal gambling, union corruption and drug-dealing in Greater Boston for almost four decades - and every cop in the Boston Police Department knows it. So what's kept them on the streets for so long?

What the cops don't know is that McKeach and Cistero have a sweet deal going with the Boston office of the FBI: the bureau looks the other way when they're doing business, and even gives them a heads-up when the local or state cops start poking around - and all McKeach and Cistero have to do is rat out the Italian mob from Boston's North End.

It's a deal that has worked for four decades, but now there's a new agent in town, fresh from a desk job in Washington, ready to take over the Organized Crime Unit. Is it the end of an era in the Boston underworld, or are McKeach and Cistero about to find out just how far corruption can go?

“Higgins's last book has all the allure and head-shrinking patois of his best work . . . a thrilling and complex book about guilt and necessity.”

Higgins's last book has all the allure and head-shrinking patois of his best work . . . a thrilling and complex book about guilt and necessity CATHOLIC HERALD
No one ever did it better NEW YORK TIMES
A terrific and topical book that takes off from the headline story of Whitey Bulger and the FBI's complicity with the underworld BOSTON GLOBE
If you haven't read George V. Higgins you can't call yourself a fan of crime fiction -- Val McDermid
The Balzac of the Boston underworld NEW YORKER
CATHOLIC HERALD

George V. Higgins was a lawyer in the Massachusetts Attorney General's office, in the Organized Crime section and the Criminal Division, and an Assistant United States Attorney, in Boston. He then founded his own private practice, defending Watergate conspirator G. Gordon Liddy and Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver. Described as 'the Balzac of the Boston underworld', he wrote more than twenty novels, including a number of lowlife masterpieces constructed almost entirely out of pitch-perfect dialogue. He died in 1999.

Arthur McKeach and Nick Cistero have been behind most of the loan-sharking, extortion, hijacking, illegal gambling, union corruption and drug-dealing in Greater Boston for almost four decades - and every cop in the Boston Police Department knows it. So what's kept them on the streets for so long?What the cops don't know is that McKeach and Cistero have a sweet deal going with the Boston office of the FBI: the bureau looks the other way when they're doing business, and even gives them a heads-up when the local or state cops start poking around - and all McKeach and Cistero have to do is rat out the Italian mob from Boston's North End.It's a deal that has worked for four decades, but now there's a new agent in town, fresh from a desk job in Washington, ready to take over the Organized Crime Unit. Is it the end of an era in the Boston underworld, or are McKeach and Cistero about to find out just how far corruption can go?

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.