D efending Billy Ryan is Higgins's third novel featuring Boston attorney Jeremiah Francis Kennedy. Jerry Kennedy is the narrator; he is the protagonist as well: The story focuses as much upon Kennedy and his personal and professional experiences as it does upon the case of Billy Ryan. Kennedy is a lonely, cynical, clever criminal lawyer, a good judge of character as well as a good legal strategist. His personal life evolves over the course of the three novels: He obtains a divorce from his unfaithful wife; his daughter grows up, marries, and has a child; his friends die. Teddy Franklin, the Cadillac thief who was his client in Kennedy for the Defense (1980) is his confidante in Defending Billy Ryan.

A principal charge made by the few reviewers who find Higgins overrated rather than underrated is the one-dimensionality of his characters. There is some truth to the charge, but...