["Dreamland"] is George V. Higgins's sixth book since 1972, when "The Friends of Eddie Coyle" appeared. Seven books in five years—clearly an oeuvre in the making, and in "Dreamland" Higgins works to extend the range, leaving the tightly plotted, swift-moving netherworld of Eddie Coyle for the denser, more literary air of Boston Brahmins, high finance and international skullduggery….

I found the intricacies of the plot—and the relationship between Compton and Andrew—ultimately baffling, and the issue of whether or not Wills senior was a Government spy of no great moment. Compton's narration is turgid at times, mannered at others, with echoes of Faulkner, Conrad, James. Yet the book has a consistent appeal, powered as it is by a determined intelligence and filled as it is with lore: There is much of interest on the workings of the legal profession, on sailing, on politics, on the lives of...