Novel: The Digger's Game

Overview
Jerry Doherty, known as "The Digger," tries to turn his back on a long career of petty and professional crime by staging one last score that he imagines will fund a quiet retirement. What begins as a farewell caper disintegrates into a series of miscalculations, double crosses, and escalating violence that pull Doherty deeper into the criminal world he hoped to leave behind. The narrative follows the unraveling of plans and relationships as competing interests and old loyalties collide.

Main characters and setup
Jerry "The Digger" Doherty is a weathered, streetwise operator whose standing in Boston's underworld is rooted in experience rather than brute force. He surrounds himself with a rotating cast of associates: younger men eager for quick cash, cynical midlevel hoods jockeying for advantage, and a handful of hardened mob figures who view Doherty's move as either a threat or an opportunity. Law enforcement and rival crews loom in the background, their pressures and investigations amplifying the stakes of what was meant to be a contained, final job.

Plot and conflict
The farewell robbery at the center of the story is deceptively simple: an attempt to take one last score and walk away. Unforeseen complications, loose tongues, bungled timing, and the presence of players with sharper ambitions, turn the plan into a calamity. As Doherty scrambles to contain the fallout, alliances shift and simmering rivalries erupt into open confrontation. The immediate loss of control exposes the fragility of the criminal ecosystem; decisions made in haste ripple outward, drawing unexpected figures into the chaos.

Style and themes
George V. Higgins' voice is lean, conversational, and centered on dialogue that reveals character through speech rather than exposition. Conversations are clipped and colloquial, capturing the rhythms of working-class Boston and the pragmatic, often brutal logic of men accustomed to dealing in risk and favors. Themes of loyalty, aging, and the illusion of exit recur throughout the narrative: retirement is less a clean break than a negotiation with habit and reputation, and attempts to sever ties force characters to confront how much of their identity has been wrapped up in crime. Moral ambiguity pervades the book; there are few grand statements of right and wrong, only a series of choices and their consequences.

Tone and atmosphere
The atmosphere is gritty and unromantic, punctuated by moments of dark humor and resignation. Violence is portrayed as transactional rather than cinematic, a tool in a life governed by debts and agreements as often as by temperament. The tension comes not only from the physical dangers but from the social calculus, who owes whom, who can be trusted, and who stands to profit from someone's fall. Time and age weigh heavily on Doherty, lending a melancholic undercurrent to the escalating conflict.

Legacy and impact
The book fits within Higgins' broader exploration of criminal milieus, sharing a focus on dialogue-driven realism and the minutiae of underworld economics. It resonates with readers who appreciate character-driven crime fiction that privileges authenticity over sensationalism. Rather than glorify the gangster life, it traces the cost of a lifetime spent inside it and asks whether any exit can be truly clean.