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Outlaws
by: Kevin Sampson

List Price: £7.99

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Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780099422235
ISBN: 0099422239
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Number Of Pages: 320
Publication Date: May 02, 2002
Publisher: Vintage
Studio: Vintage
Sales Rank: 251794

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Editorial Review:

Amazon.co.uk Review:
In Outlaws, Moby and his brothers-in-arms, Ged and Ratter revel in the glory of being "Faces", respected kingpins of the Mersey underworld. As Moby, a fast-living, wisecracking Scouse entrepreneur with a flexible attitude to the law, and a crippling fondness for lap-dancers, says, "I do not half mind being a Somebody in Liverpool."But as the season of goodwill approaches, and the need to make fast cash looms like an old enemy, the Outlaws see that their world is changing. A new breed of somebodies is clamouring at the gates of their little kingdom--a growing army of ruthless young wannabes, trigger-happy upstarts for whom words such as Honour and Loyalty are best consigned to the history books. Retirement and respectability suddenly seem like enticing prospects for the Outlaws, but can they get out alive before their own petty rivalries tear them apart? The "noble thief" is a cliché, and so is the formula of villains killing themselves in their bid to become pillars of the local Golf Club. But Sampson's fourth novel offers a thoroughly fresh take on a timeless story. Outlaws transcends the dreary preoccupations of gangsta fiction through two things: its vividly drawn characters and its ceaselessly witty use of language. Its trio of narrators are not "Goodfellas" with Brookside accents, but complex men struggling to conquer a thoroughly real world. They do so with a mixture of charm, cunning and unforgivable viciousness--and the result, for the reader, is an exhilarating battle between sympathy and revulsion. Fans of Awaydays and Powder will relish a further excursion into the mysteries of modern-day Merseyside, and everyone looking for a comic, intelligent gangster yarn can stop searching. Ged, Ratter and Moby might be struggling to pull off the Big One, but Kevin Sampson has done it in spades. --Matthew Baylis

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- pure brilliant. That is a fact
Encountered this book after reading 'Awaydays,' by the way, and its a great read to be fair. know where I'm going. No two ways about it this book is pure brilliant.That is a fact. The way it evokes working class life in Liverpool by the way, the crime, it's characters, their verbal tics makes it seem real rather than mere caricature in fairness, knowmean. Others in line with the blurb on the book have described it as Goodfellas on the Mersey, Scorcese with a scouse ascent, know where I'm going, and while I can see what they're saying in fairness, its more Roddy Doyle with a scouse ascent and violent tendencies, and thats the God's honest truth. That is a fact. End of.

Rating:

- OK, but Nothing Special
Liverpool's underworld comes alive in this Mean Streets/Goodfellas style tale of three South Liverpool friends who've grown up to be "respected" gangsters. The catalyst in the story is a plan by their leader, Ged, to set up one more easy score before bowing out of the game after twenty years. Of course, when in all gangster fiction and film, has that last score gone according to plan? The history of the threesome and various supporting characters unfolds in their alternating first-person accounts of the weeks leading up to Christmastime heist. The real story, however, is about how Ged is trying to be a "good" honorable gangster, and how Ratter has big big plans that Ged knows nothing about. This theme of betrayal is one of the most elementary ... Read More:

Rating:

- sampson manages another unputdownable read
Initially a little harder to get into, the slang a little tough to get around on occasions although nothing like trainspotting. And the story being told by the characters as it progresses is a little tough until the characters and their relationships is established.
Once the book gets going though it is true to form with Sampsons excellent characterisation, never painting characters black or white just describing things through their eyes, in this respect Ratter is bad put his double dealing twisted tales propel the story along with the most force.
The story build nicely towards the ending and its not at all obvious how things are going to transpire, as paranoia, double crossing and lots of drugs can lead to things taking unexpected ... Read More:

Rating:

- Liverpool Noir at its finest
This is a truly stunning book. If you're a fan of hard boiled lo-life fiction then this is one you must not miss. Sampson is the Scally Scorsese and this is his Mean Streets. OUTLAWS is an utterly compelling tale of three South Liverpool hardmen who've been left behind by the new wave of sophisticated drug crime. They're old-skool stick up men with all the archaic morality that comes with it. When they run into lumber with a slick new firm over an incident in a lap-dance bar, all hell lets loose. And does it! The action is tautly scripted, the plotting masterfully handled. OUTLAWS would make a wonderful film and, from me (a gangsta film snob) there can be no higher compliment. This is definitely my book of the year so far.

Rating:

- Disappointing
Another book from Sampson and the usual failings. No likeable characters in the book at all. I presume that we were meant to warm to "Ged" as he had "honour", but he came across as just another run-of-the-mill no-mark.

As with "Powder", he seems incapable of following through a story to its conclusion and it almost appears as if he was bored with it by the end.

And, as for the depictions and characterisations of women in his books, dear Lord.............

There's been a plethora of British gangster films and books in recent years. This dresses it up in a Scouse accent, but there's nothing new to see here.

Books : Outlaws