Eddie Coyle is a middle-aged, low-level hoodlum who is facing time in prison for a failed hijacking. As his date to enter prison approaches, Eddie is trying to get some money by obtaining guns for a group of bank robbers. At the same time, he is also acting as an informer for a not-trustworthy federal law enforcement agent in hopes of keeping himself out jail.

The novel is populated with a memorable cast of lowlifes who are navigating a world in which trust is nonexistent and self-interest rules the day.

Eddie Coyle is "the game-changing crime novel of the last fifty years. It is also quite possibly one of the four or five best crime novels ever written."
-Elmore Leonard