been arrested, Coyle suggests that he may be willing to give Foley the names of the bank robbers in exchange for his slate being wiped clean in New Hampshire. Foley agrees to meet Coyle later in the day, with the understanding that if Coyle doesn't show, he opted not to rat on the bank robbers. The head of the crime family mistakenly believes it was Coyle who informed on Scalisi and Van's gang. The boss, referred to only as "the man," is furious because the state police killed his friend, who was part of the gang, during the arrest. The man hires Dillon to kill Coyle, who begrudgingly takes the contract. We learn from Foley that Coyle never showed, and thus did not inform. After waiting for Coyle, Foley buys a paper and sees that the information has become useless anyhow, as the robbers have been arrested. Later that afternoon, Coyle enters Dillon's bar in a sour mood, knowing he'll have to serve time in prison. Dillon receives a call confirming the plan to kill Coyle, and subsequently invites him to the Bruins game that evening. At the game, Dillon plies Coyle with liquor and eventually shoots him while an accomplice drives the men after the game. They leave Coyle's body in a car in the West End Bowling Alleys parking lot. In the final chapter, Jackie Brown is in court being arraigned for possession of machine guns. After pleading not guilty, a trial date is set. The prosecutor and defense counsel discuss options, but both show resignation that whatever happens to Jackie Brown, nothing will change in the world of crime. Critical reception The novel was an instant success, with Higgins receiving praise from Norman Mailer as "the American writer who is closest to Henry Green. What I can't get over is that so good a first novel was written by the fuzz." Elmore Leonard said that The Friends of Eddie Coyle was the best crime novel ever written, though Higgins hated being classified as a "crime writer." According to Leonard, "He saw himself as the Charles Dickens of crime in Boston instead of a crime writer. He just understood the human condition and he understood it most vividly in the language and actions among low lives." The New Yorker wrote that "while the book goes through many of the machinations of the mystery genre—murders, bank robberies, and double