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At End of Day
In his final novel George V. Higgins provides us with yet another searing and enthralling dissection of the Boston underworld. Arthur McKeach and Nick Cistaro are notorious, especially to the Boston police department. Their reputations precede them as orchestrators of extortion, theft, fraud, bribery, assault and even murder. But for thirty two years, both have managed to elude the authorities. A profitable “arrangement” with the FBI, negotiated some thirty years previously, has kept them comfortably unindicted and free to monopolize Boston’s crime scene for all too long. In this thrilling, fast-paced George V. Higgins classic, the intricate channels of crime and American law enforcement turn out to be inextricably and precariously linked. Inspired by a true story, At End of Day frames a vivid and timelessly authentic narrative that has implications far beyond its pages.
352 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 1, 2000
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201 people want to read
About the author
George V. Higgins
75 books261 followersGeorge Vincent Higgins was a United States author, lawyer, newspaper columnist, and college professor. He is best known for his bestselling crime novels.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
October 24, 2020
Classic Higgins. While “normal” conversation – itself often criminal and hilarious at the same time – flows, and flows some more in the foreground without ever seeming to ebb, the action faintly plays in the background like a TV in the corner with the sound turned way down at the ol’ boys’ regular gathering. This actually happens in one extended scene. There is a good story here. But as always with Higgins the pleasure lies in what he does with Boston dialects.
First rate. Nearly as good as Friends of Eddie Coyle and Cogan’s Trade.
First rate. Nearly as good as Friends of Eddie Coyle and Cogan’s Trade.
June 26, 2021
DNF 34%
August 10, 2010
The book falls far short of the promise of Higgins' early work, particularly his masterpeice, "The Friends of Eddie Coyle."
Check out my New York Times book review section review at this URL:
http://www.nytimes.com/books/00/08/20...
Check out my New York Times book review section review at this URL:
http://www.nytimes.com/books/00/08/20...
January 18, 2014
I believe this is based loosely on the Whitey Bulger story- FBI in with criminals. Somewhat disturbing to consider that the author had to know how these successful criminals thought. Quite an imagination- but all plausible.
December 31, 2022
Though this features Higgins trademark talent for entertaining dialogue and monologue, he tests the limits of his talent resulting in a long, meandering, and ultimately fizzling tale freckled with wonderful moments. This is not Higgins best in spite of featuring more plot and action than the other Higgins novels I’ve read. I am also beginning to wonder if his penchant for “authenticity” is actually just bad taste.
September 29, 2020
Obviously based on Whitey Bulger and Stephen Flemmi. The pages and pages long monologues felt weird and artificial. Especially from characters who really aren't in the story, like Lily Farrier (head FBI guy's wife).
Liked the mundane, careerist reasons why the FBI is corrupted. All of the police (Boston Police, Massachusetts State Police, and FBI) come off like more or less complete morons, but I'm not sure if the author intended for BPD or MSP to look that bad? MSP detective brags and brags about solving a crime that was really caught by a nosy pharmacist.
Stuff with the drug dealer, his wife and their swinging is weird and unpleasant. Stuff with the organized crime guys going on about gay men they did business with, and how they hate them, is also unpleasant and doesn't add anything to the story.
Weirdest part of the book might be the robotic descriptions of houses and buildings, even houses that have literally nothing to do with any of the characters or the story, houses that are driven by once. That and the addresses given. Largely impossible to make any sense of the geography or feel of the setting without having a lot of your own knowledge of the Boston area, which I do not.
Overuse of italics (one italic word per sentence!, every sentence!) drove me nuts. Also kind of felt like everyone talks with the same vocabulary and accent and diction, and it's all a Boston lowlife accent? Even the professional FBI guy from Kentucky, or the other FBI guy from the Midwest...It might just be the overuse of italics that give me that impression.
I'm curious what Higgins knew about Whitey Bulger and when, since the book was written shortly after Bulger's FBI informing became publicly known. But this is not a book I would recommend.
Liked the mundane, careerist reasons why the FBI is corrupted. All of the police (Boston Police, Massachusetts State Police, and FBI) come off like more or less complete morons, but I'm not sure if the author intended for BPD or MSP to look that bad? MSP detective brags and brags about solving a crime that was really caught by a nosy pharmacist.
Stuff with the drug dealer, his wife and their swinging is weird and unpleasant. Stuff with the organized crime guys going on about gay men they did business with, and how they hate them, is also unpleasant and doesn't add anything to the story.
Weirdest part of the book might be the robotic descriptions of houses and buildings, even houses that have literally nothing to do with any of the characters or the story, houses that are driven by once. That and the addresses given. Largely impossible to make any sense of the geography or feel of the setting without having a lot of your own knowledge of the Boston area, which I do not.
Overuse of italics (one italic word per sentence!, every sentence!) drove me nuts. Also kind of felt like everyone talks with the same vocabulary and accent and diction, and it's all a Boston lowlife accent? Even the professional FBI guy from Kentucky, or the other FBI guy from the Midwest...It might just be the overuse of italics that give me that impression.
I'm curious what Higgins knew about Whitey Bulger and when, since the book was written shortly after Bulger's FBI informing became publicly known. But this is not a book I would recommend.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 17, 2011
Enter the world of George V. Higgins at your peril. He creates wonderful and maddening plotlines in large part based on what appear to be long, meandering statements by characters that both provide insights into the character and advance the story----all in a strange, almost mesmerizing kind of way. At first, one may wonder---why am I reading the reminiscences of this gangster who's going on and on about his life, packed with apparently random digressions.
Higgins cares about his characters, even respects them, even while sometimes mocking them in his descriptions of their foibles---and the character and plot development mutually support each other---beautiful!
I should mention that the Higgins milieu is cops, criminals, of all levels of their respective hierarchies in Boston.
Higgins cares about his characters, even respects them, even while sometimes mocking them in his descriptions of their foibles---and the character and plot development mutually support each other---beautiful!
I should mention that the Higgins milieu is cops, criminals, of all levels of their respective hierarchies in Boston.
September 18, 2016
I have read several Higgins books and I'm sorry to say this isn't one of the better ones.
Here's the good news: his skill at dialogue is clearly apparent in this book. He's amount the best out there and in this book he lets the dialogue tell the story. The bad news is that his skill at dialogue is TOO apparent in the book. It's a very dense book. There were several times when I had to circle back several times to see if I had missed key clues and plot points in the book.
To me this must be what it's like to research history only using primary sources. It's probably more rewarding than using secondary sources but it's a hard slog. For what I wanted in a book, it was a bit too hard of a slog.
Here's the good news: his skill at dialogue is clearly apparent in this book. He's amount the best out there and in this book he lets the dialogue tell the story. The bad news is that his skill at dialogue is TOO apparent in the book. It's a very dense book. There were several times when I had to circle back several times to see if I had missed key clues and plot points in the book.
To me this must be what it's like to research history only using primary sources. It's probably more rewarding than using secondary sources but it's a hard slog. For what I wanted in a book, it was a bit too hard of a slog.
August 6, 2023
a master.
November 19, 2018
monologues, monologues...monologues? of course, I like the Whitey Bulger connection, but other than that, nah. Long-winded.
May 28, 2021
In crime fiction, there was no one like George V. Higgins. Perhaps John O’Hara (whom Higgins admired) did the same thing for “serious” fiction, but George had a style all his own. So, it made me a little sad to read At End of Day, knowing that it was Higgins’ final book. (Fortunately, there ARE a few, earlier Higgins novels that I have yet to read).
The book met my lofty expectations. Plot wise, it is based on the Whitey Bulger case, in which law enforcement allowed itself to become a tool Whitey used to “take out” his competition. But with Higgins it’s not the plot or the action that matters - he’s middling at both. Instead, it is the dialogue. No one could write dialogue like Higgins and - as Robert B. Parker noted on his blurb on At End of Day’s back cover - much of the dialogue in At End of Day is second- or third-hand. (It recounts what someone told someone that another someone had told them).
The involved dialogue can be challenging to follow. Higgins doles out puzzle pieces to his readers, but readers have to put them together for themselves. Another reason At End of Day sparkles is that Higgins doesn’t take sides with his characters - they’re all real, flawed human beings. The publishing industry has become so infected with political correctness that it’s ruined realism in fiction. (For instance, Elmore Leonard received much-deserved praise for his dialogue, but the politically-correct slant of his novels was a great drawback). Higgins delivers a hard world to his readers; he turned off his internal censor.
Obviously, I’m a big Higgins fan. Find At End of Day - or any of his novels - and settle in for a treat.
The book met my lofty expectations. Plot wise, it is based on the Whitey Bulger case, in which law enforcement allowed itself to become a tool Whitey used to “take out” his competition. But with Higgins it’s not the plot or the action that matters - he’s middling at both. Instead, it is the dialogue. No one could write dialogue like Higgins and - as Robert B. Parker noted on his blurb on At End of Day’s back cover - much of the dialogue in At End of Day is second- or third-hand. (It recounts what someone told someone that another someone had told them).
The involved dialogue can be challenging to follow. Higgins doles out puzzle pieces to his readers, but readers have to put them together for themselves. Another reason At End of Day sparkles is that Higgins doesn’t take sides with his characters - they’re all real, flawed human beings. The publishing industry has become so infected with political correctness that it’s ruined realism in fiction. (For instance, Elmore Leonard received much-deserved praise for his dialogue, but the politically-correct slant of his novels was a great drawback). Higgins delivers a hard world to his readers; he turned off his internal censor.
Obviously, I’m a big Higgins fan. Find At End of Day - or any of his novels - and settle in for a treat.
April 4, 2023
Been reading a lot of Boston crime novels lately so it made sense for me to finally circle back to George V. Higgins’ final work.
My journey with Higgins is an interesting one. I first read The Friends of Eddie Coyle ten years ago and while I thought it was good, I really had no idea how to appreciate. Its dialogue-heavy approach with a large heap of verisimilitude made me feel like I was reading transcripts of a conversation between gangsters and cops rather than a typical cops-and-gangsters tale.
But as I got older, I understood more of what Higgins was trying to do. I saw how effectively his famous tale was adapted for the big screen, becoming yet another beloved 70s crime movie of mine. And it led me to Cogan’s Trade, which was one of the best things I read last year. I still think about it today. The contemporary adaptation of that novel, Killing Them Softly, is far less effective in its presentation than Friends of Eddie Coyle; it felt like guys just reading dialogue off a page rather than an actual film.
Anyway, I finally got around to Higgins’ take on the Whitey Bulger saga with this one that follows a fictionalized Bulger and Steve Flemmi, the two famous south Boston gangsters who informed for the FBI on the side. It’s not as taut as Cogan’s Trade but almost as fun, exploring the same theme in Higgins’ work about everyone coming from the same muck but only some being able to get ahead instead of others.
Funny and clever, this was a great capper to Higgins’ legendary career.
My journey with Higgins is an interesting one. I first read The Friends of Eddie Coyle ten years ago and while I thought it was good, I really had no idea how to appreciate. Its dialogue-heavy approach with a large heap of verisimilitude made me feel like I was reading transcripts of a conversation between gangsters and cops rather than a typical cops-and-gangsters tale.
But as I got older, I understood more of what Higgins was trying to do. I saw how effectively his famous tale was adapted for the big screen, becoming yet another beloved 70s crime movie of mine. And it led me to Cogan’s Trade, which was one of the best things I read last year. I still think about it today. The contemporary adaptation of that novel, Killing Them Softly, is far less effective in its presentation than Friends of Eddie Coyle; it felt like guys just reading dialogue off a page rather than an actual film.
Anyway, I finally got around to Higgins’ take on the Whitey Bulger saga with this one that follows a fictionalized Bulger and Steve Flemmi, the two famous south Boston gangsters who informed for the FBI on the side. It’s not as taut as Cogan’s Trade but almost as fun, exploring the same theme in Higgins’ work about everyone coming from the same muck but only some being able to get ahead instead of others.
Funny and clever, this was a great capper to Higgins’ legendary career.
March 20, 2025
Final novel by the Boston bard... not his worst by any means. Goes in the tier between "for everyone" and "for the strict completionist." A fictional riff on the Whitey Bulger scandal, in which FBI agents became entangled with their vicious hood informant. Which was basically also combined with the Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs to create the Departed, and this book very much seals it that Departed screenwriter Wm. Monahan ransacked the Higgins Gesamtausgabe to create that script. But it's really funny this one is labeled "a novel of suspense" and a non-trivial fraction of the final thirty pages or so are (spoiler alert) dedicated to the mechanics of home equity loans. Some vicious violence and action, relative location in the text varying somewhat from previous entries.
Thinking on Higgins overall it really is apparent the first three (Eddie-Digger-Cogan) are the crowning accomplishments. There, the insane, unhinged, almost Bernhardian monologues balance with terse, plain description. Even a good late Hig like this one suffers a bit from his tendency to bloviate on matters of law and order. He also will try to "get literary" on you when describing someone move a glass or blot a stain. But still very very funny and lots of great stuff on the mechanics of surveillance, miserable transactional lower-upper-middle class marriages, wiretap transcripts (thank you).
Thinking on Higgins overall it really is apparent the first three (Eddie-Digger-Cogan) are the crowning accomplishments. There, the insane, unhinged, almost Bernhardian monologues balance with terse, plain description. Even a good late Hig like this one suffers a bit from his tendency to bloviate on matters of law and order. He also will try to "get literary" on you when describing someone move a glass or blot a stain. But still very very funny and lots of great stuff on the mechanics of surveillance, miserable transactional lower-upper-middle class marriages, wiretap transcripts (thank you).
July 20, 2025
The audiobook, read by Mark Ashby, proved a fine companion to a spur-of-the-moment 15 hour drive I undertook after all of the New York area airports decided to take a sick day for a couple of days. George V. Higgins' swan song At End of Day is too bloated to stand alongside his best work, but when it gets going, it finds Higgins still pitching his fastball in his final years. A version of this book half as long (it's near 400 pages), one that trimmed out a lot of thinly disguised infodumps and digressions that exist solely to let the characters hear themselves talk, might have been a strong close to Higgins' niche career as a novelist. Too many conversations involve one character saying something to another character that the latter would already know, and many more trail off in directions that aren't even interesting as examinations of interiority. But the underlying plot about the interrelations between law enforcement and organized crime is well-sketched, clearly bolstered by Higgins' day job as a lawyer, and the ending packs a cynical punch that rivals the brilliantly deflationary close of A City on a Hill. Some of the individuals populating this novel also feel like Higgins getting prophetic at the turn of the new millennium: the Vietnam vet crank radio host ranting about the urgent need for charter schools definitely exists on some corner of YouTube.
May 21, 2024
Exhausting and weighty crime novel has so many characters sequestered in their own plotlines, it's difficult to follow (or even find) the story. The dialogue is completely brilliant and hilarious in places, but there is more here than in other Higgins' books; as many pages as there are meal descriptions in a Thomas Wolfe novel, or paragraph-less plotting in HP Lovecraft or Dostoevsky. Once action takes place, it's like a car crash. The criminals and federal agents are all vivid and exciting characters--some more than others. One subplot about drug distribution and bogus prescriptions could have been its own book.
January 18, 2018
Outstanding dialog. Even though there were times certain passages went on too long, it was easy to forgive Higgins because it was all in the service of character. This was my first Higgins book, the last one he wrote. What impressed me even more than the dialog was his attention to detail, for example the character Sexton describing how he pulled off the prescription drug scam, also the detail of the coca-cola cooler where the cash was stored, and how the cooler was acquired. I listened to the audio book. It was total pleasure. Top notch stuff.
November 10, 2024
One star for his dialogue for which he was justly praised but minus 3 stars for the pointlessness of so much of it. Endless rambles of conversation that are totally irrelevant to any of the alleged 'action' in this novel. What was wrong with this man? The craft of writing is one thing, but a total lack of a coherent plot is unforgivable. Didn't he ever hear of storytelling and beginnings, middles and ends? And even when some or his vague ramblings reach a conclusion, they resemble mere casual anecdotes. Don't waste any time reading this book. Life is too short.
April 16, 2019
Masterful bit of storytelling told via various nefarious types’ conversations and/or recollections of conversations had with other nefarious types.
An easy book to lose yourself in, and a helluva final book from the late, great George V. Higgins.
An easy book to lose yourself in, and a helluva final book from the late, great George V. Higgins.
December 11, 2023
Heavy duty organised crime novel, with plenty of FBI involvement.
Immaculately written. Has the tone just right. It's like you are in the room with them. (Or the car, or the warehouse.)
Because it is realistic, the language is bad.
Immaculately written. Has the tone just right. It's like you are in the room with them. (Or the car, or the warehouse.)
Because it is realistic, the language is bad.
May 16, 2019
It's not the plot. It's the dialogue. It's all in the craic, the story, the characters, the mood, the violence, the crime. No-one does it better,
February 22, 2021
Interesting stuff. Almost seemed like a series of separate vignettes to me, even though there was a cohesive set of characters. Different from my experience, so always interesting to me.
May 13, 2023
Higgins' last novel. Still (well) worth it.
December 22, 2023
All dialogue just gets monotonous. Elmore Leonard at least had plots and subplots interwoven. An interesting experiment that fails.
October 18, 2025
One of the worst books I’ve ever read. Was an absolute struggle to finish. Should be called “Monologues to nowhere: oooh look a squirrel.”
October 24, 2012
SPOILERS BELOW:
This is one of those books I was very impressed with in terms of ambition and craft, but ultimately unsatisfied with. I'll admit I went to the library with the intention of picking up "The Friends of Eddie Coyle" (his famous one) but got stuck with this. His style is very odd. I'd read he was 'dialogue-heavy' but that doesn't even begin to describe. 80% of the novel is quotes-within-quotes, alternating between characters who speak, at the turn of a dime, in both the past and present tense. His 'objective-narrator' descriptions of environments/ scenes are absurdly technical and unnecessarily detailed.
My main gripe is with the tagline on the front cover - "A Novel of Suspense". Nope! The whole story is written to convince you that McKeach is too good to be caught. At the end, he sees that the fix is in and evades capture, staying one step ahead of the game. The thing the author said would most likely happen happened. I was not suspended.
There's some very good work here, mostly in Higgins' portrayal of some engaging characters (Cistaro, McKeach, Farrier) and some incredible (though at times exhausting) dialogue. On to Eddie Coyle next.
Sidebar: Mamet is a huge fan of Higgins, dating back many years. Windbag dialogue writers unite!!
This is one of those books I was very impressed with in terms of ambition and craft, but ultimately unsatisfied with. I'll admit I went to the library with the intention of picking up "The Friends of Eddie Coyle" (his famous one) but got stuck with this. His style is very odd. I'd read he was 'dialogue-heavy' but that doesn't even begin to describe. 80% of the novel is quotes-within-quotes, alternating between characters who speak, at the turn of a dime, in both the past and present tense. His 'objective-narrator' descriptions of environments/ scenes are absurdly technical and unnecessarily detailed.
My main gripe is with the tagline on the front cover - "A Novel of Suspense". Nope! The whole story is written to convince you that McKeach is too good to be caught. At the end, he sees that the fix is in and evades capture, staying one step ahead of the game. The thing the author said would most likely happen happened. I was not suspended.
There's some very good work here, mostly in Higgins' portrayal of some engaging characters (Cistaro, McKeach, Farrier) and some incredible (though at times exhausting) dialogue. On to Eddie Coyle next.
Sidebar: Mamet is a huge fan of Higgins, dating back many years. Windbag dialogue writers unite!!
September 6, 2016
Pure Higgins' Gold.
"When Sexton held it away from his throat, as he did when he laughed, his convulsing mirth was soundless except for deep wheezing sounds that made Rascob fear he was choking.
The first time he was present when Sexton did it, Rascob had made the mistake and showed he found the sight unsettling.
Sexton had been gratified and explained more than he meant to. "Like watching a man laugh on TV after you hit the Mute button, aint it?" he'd said viciously, revealing that it was a tactic he used to prevent the visitor from getting through the encounter without revealing revulsion for afflictions. "'Cept you didn't and I'm not on TV- I'm right here, in front of your eyes. Ain't normal is it? Isn't natural. Crippled man should be satisfied with that, just to be a helpless cripple- not act like he's gonna up an' dah right in front of you, on top of it. But that's what it sounds like, all right- doesn't sound like I'm havun' fun, it sounds like I'm gonna die."
"When Sexton held it away from his throat, as he did when he laughed, his convulsing mirth was soundless except for deep wheezing sounds that made Rascob fear he was choking.
The first time he was present when Sexton did it, Rascob had made the mistake and showed he found the sight unsettling.
Sexton had been gratified and explained more than he meant to. "Like watching a man laugh on TV after you hit the Mute button, aint it?" he'd said viciously, revealing that it was a tactic he used to prevent the visitor from getting through the encounter without revealing revulsion for afflictions. "'Cept you didn't and I'm not on TV- I'm right here, in front of your eyes. Ain't normal is it? Isn't natural. Crippled man should be satisfied with that, just to be a helpless cripple- not act like he's gonna up an' dah right in front of you, on top of it. But that's what it sounds like, all right- doesn't sound like I'm havun' fun, it sounds like I'm gonna die."
December 3, 2013
This book was the last that Higgins had fully completed before his death in 1999, and it has an odd end, in that you could tell multiple characters were meant to have a life that went on beyond this book: their stories were left in limbo, whereas in many (or most) of the books, there is resolution at the very end. So in that respect, an indefinite end in the plot.
The older Higgins became, it seems the greater understand he gained in the relationships between men and women, husbands and wives, parents and children, and co-workers--legally or not. He certainly understood the rhythms of Boston law and its' politics. So in that respect, knowing this had been his last week, made me rather sad. There should have been so much more.
The older Higgins became, it seems the greater understand he gained in the relationships between men and women, husbands and wives, parents and children, and co-workers--legally or not. He certainly understood the rhythms of Boston law and its' politics. So in that respect, knowing this had been his last week, made me rather sad. There should have been so much more.
December 8, 2025
First book of Higgins that I have ever read and it was his last novel. It took me a few chapters to get into this authors style and to understand where the story was going. However I couldn't put the book down at the end as it kept the reader very captivated. FBI, Boston mafia working together to work against each other. I've heard great reviews of Higgins first novel Friends of Eddie Coyle, since I have read his last novel I must now read his first. This was a good book.
January 7, 2014
Wonderful novel--a thinly disguised Whitey Bulger story, including the cooperation of the FBI with criminal enterprises as we now know happened in Boston. This alliance was formed mainly to try to eradicate the Cosa Nostra (Mafia) crime machine. Great depiction of characters, neither complete heroes nor villains. I highly recommend to Bostonians and others who simply like a well-written novel.
June 9, 2009
As much as I've tried, I just can't get into this.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews