Twelve years ago Jerry Kennedy delivered his first report, Kennedy for the Defense, on being the classiest sleazy criminal lawyer in Boston, as Mack, his then-wife, called him. Seven years ago, Jerry called in again, with Penance for Jerry Kennedy. After that, things only got worse. Much worse. But in this latest dispatch, we learn that Jerry is digging himself out of a big hole, defending Billy Ryan - the longtime commissioner of Public Works has cut one shady deal too many.

Battered Boston lawyers, like bargain diamonds, don't look so hot under strong white light - especially decades after they were newly cut and mounted. Though Jerry, brighter than most defense attorneys, has lost some of his luster, he knows enough to depend on friends - especially Bad-eye Mulvey, Cadillac Teddy, and one he didn't know he had: a heavy-hitter named Carlo.

Jerry Kennedy also knows that the government can always get a public official if it really wants to - a situation made easier when a plea-bargaining crooked state legislator (Public Works Committee, natch) named Jack Bonaventre is in good voice. So Jerry digs in, looking hard for that edge to discredit the prosecution. The drama that follows in and around the Suffolk County Superior Court is vintage Higgins - the sort of stylish prose that prompted the London Sunday Times to say: "It used to be Henry James's town, now George V.

Higgins has taken over Boston."