The Friends of Eddie Coyle

 Here's another good reason to mention The Friends of Eddie Coyle. John Holliday, who designs the covers for the Trinity novels let me know The Friends of Eddie Coyle was an answer to a Jeopardy question recently. Maybe last night. Sorry I missed it. But it gives me a chance to quote from the book. Notice the name of the character Eddie's talking to. Elmore Leonard noticed the name and used it as the name of a title character. Another thing. In the book, the hockey team in Boston is called "the Broons."

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 Jackie Brown at twenty-six, with no expression on his face, said that he could get some guns. "I can get you, probably, six pieces. Tomorrow night. In a week or so, maybe ten days, another dozen. I got a guy coming in with at least ten of them but I already talk to another guy about four of them and he's, you know, expecting them. He's got something to do. So, six tomorrow night. Another dozen in a week." 
    The stocky man sat across from Jackie Brown and allowed his coffee to grow cold. "I don't know as I like that," he said. "I don't know if I like buying stuff from the same lot as somebody else. Like, I don't know what he's going to do with it, you know? If it was to cause trouble to my people on account of somebody else having some from the same lot, well, it could cause trouble for me, too.

The Friends of Eddie Coyle, 
by George V. Higgins

Edison Graves

Work in Progress: 
I'm at work on an Edison Graves novel. Naturally, it takes place in Holbrook, but there's a little bit of Globe, Arizona in it too. Just enough for some good Mexican food.
Close to forty thousand words now, so I should wrap it up pretty soon.  Then I'll feel okay about publishing Ferguson's Trip.
 
I don't think El Rey is still open, but it was the best in the state, in my opinion.

Marvelous Marvin Hagler

Research finding of the week:  

Middleweight Marvin Hagler had his name legally changed to Marvelous Marvin Hagler. He was tired of sportscasters not getting it right.



I needed to know about Marvelous Marvin, because Edison Graves "looked like a middleweight contender. Like a native Marvelous Marvin Hagler." He's been getting a lot of road work in outside of Globe, Arizona.

"Probative of Powers to Astound" George V. Higgins

  Elmore Leonard  
George V. Higgins

Masters of Dialogue

 Writing is the only trade I know of in which sniveling confessions of extreme incompetence are taken as credentials probative of powers to astound the multitude. - George V. Higgins

Ferguson's Trip

I completed first draft of Ferguson's Trip at the end of 2019. It's a standalone novel set in northern Maine in the same time frame as the Trinity novels. Hockey, Country Western music and the notorious  Haynesville Woods all play a part in Ferguson's Trip.
The title character, Thane Ferguson, is named, in part, after an old Montreal Canadien named John Ferguson. 
This month I'm working on another standalone set in Holbrook, Arizona in 1975. More about that later.