Kennedy for the Defense [is] George V. Higgins' full-scale, affectionate portrait of a nuts-and-bolts criminal lawyer at work.

Higgins presents Kennedy and his clients through a series of stitched-together monologues, in which characters meditate on events that take place off-stage. Because the characters ruminate instead of react, there is never much tension in the novel. Compare Kennedy to a novel by Ross Macdonald, another writer who relies on dialogue extensively. Macdonald's dialogue gets its energy from speakers who are trying to hide something, often their own violence. Higgins' characters, like friendly acquaintances in a bar, just want us to listen to them talk about their problems. Yet some of what is lost in the way of tension is gained in the careful depiction of character. In a Macdonald novel we never really have time to get to know the characters. They always kill themselves, or are murdered, just...