Wonderful Years, Wonderful Years

From Publishers Weekly

The pleasures of this smart, tightly constructed novelHiggins's 18th book in as many yearsreside in its author's familiar gift for pungent dialogue and dead-on characterization. Once again, it is set in a version of Boston in which each character lives by a different code of honor, and some live by none. Gene Arbuckle's Navy career ended in the brig; now he is chauffeur to Ken Farley, a wealthy contractor who may soon be targeted for Federal indictment. When a case of justified assault lands him back in legal trouble, Arbuckle faces a brutal choice: he can go to jail, or trade information on Farley for his own freedom. Complicating matters is Farley's wife Nell, a paranoid schizophrenic whose wild accusations against her husband may not seem at all crazy to ambitious prosecutors. Unfolding in a series of long, anecdotal conversations, the novel initially seems like a series of detours, but the various plot lines merge with a narrative mastery in the final chapters. While not as suspenseful as some of his earlier work, Wonderful Years shows Higgins at the top of his form as a stylist. BOMC selection. Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.