While The Friends of Eddie Coyle has frequently been used as a reference point in critical evaluations of his later development as a novelist, George V. Higgins has never again produced a book so economical and bare-boned, although he has revealed other literary virtues. In The Digger's Game (1973) and Cogan's Trade (1974), the two novels which immediately followed The Friends of Eddie Coyle, Higgins further explores the fictional environment he established in his first novel. There is an explicit connection between Cogan's Trade and The Friends of Eddie Coyle.

Dillon, the criminal bartender, is the presiding spirit of the later novel, even though he never actually makes an appearance. The repeated invocation of his name and spirit point to his significance within the economy of crime. The illness of Dillon is the cause for his protege, Jackie Cogan, being called in to assume the role of enforcer...