The Digger’s Game
By George V. Higgins
Jerry “Digger” Doherty is an ex-con and proprietor of a workingman’s Boston bar, who supplements his income with the occasional “odd job,” like stealing live checks and picking up hot goods. His brother’s a priest, his wife’s a nag, and he’s got a deadly appetite for martinis and gambling. But when the Digger looses eighteen grand in borrowed money on a trip to Vegas, he quickly finds himself in the sights of mob loneshark “the Greek,” who will have to make the Digger pay up one way or another. Luckily—if you call it luck—the Digger has been let in on a little job that can turn his gambling debt into a profit, as long as he can pull it off without getting killed.
George V. Higgins was the author of more than 20 novels, including the bestsellers The Friends of Eddie Coyle, Cogan’s Trade, and The Digger’s Game. He was a reporter for the Providence Journal and the Associated Press before obtaining a law degree from Boston College Law School in 1967. He was an assistant attorney general and then an assistant United States attorney in Boston from 1969 to 1973. He later taught creative writing at Boston University. He died in 1999.
Reviews
“[Higgins is] the best American crime novelist now at work.” —Time
“Higgins writes about the world of crime with an authenticity that is unmatched.” —Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post
“Flawless of its kind—never a false word, phrase, rhythm, gesture.” The New Republic
“The Digger’s Game is more than a thriller. It is an American novel of drive and imagination.” —William Hogan, San Francisco Chronicle
