Yeah, Higgins was a snob. He was too intellectual for his own good, and he often described his fellow Irishmen in lowly terms. Cutting his teeth as a prosecutor probably didn't help, but that's no excuse.

His first three novels were great ("The Friends of Eddie Coyle" an all-time great). But after that, I believe he began to read too many of his own reviews about his realistic dialogue and whatnot. Too many run-on sentences and storylines that he had no business writing about. After "The Digger's Game" and "Cogan's Trade," you can keep the rest.