George V. Higgins

George Vincent Higgins was an American author, lawyer, newspaper columnist, and college professor, best known for his bestselling crime novels. Born on November 13, 1939, in Brockton, Massachusetts, Higgins grew up in the nearby town of Rockland. He received his bachelor's degree in English from Boston College in 1961 and went on to earn a law degree from Boston College Law School in 1965.

After graduating from law school, Higgins worked as an assistant United States attorney in Boston, where he gained firsthand experience with the criminal justice system that would later inform his writing. In 1970, he published his first novel, "The Friends of Eddie Coyle," which became a bestseller and established his reputation as a crime writer. Higgins's writing style was characterized by his use of realistic dialogue, drawn from his experience as a lawyer and newspaper columnist, and his ability to create complex and morally ambiguous characters.

Over the course of his career, Higgins wrote more than thirty books, including "The Digger's Game," "Cogan's Trade," and "Bomber's Law." His work was widely praised for its gritty realism and its exploration of the criminal underworld. In addition to his work as a novelist, Higgins also wrote a newspaper column for the Boston Globe and taught creative writing at Boston University. He passed away on November 6, 1999, but his work continues to be celebrated for its contributions to the crime fiction genre.