Outlaws
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
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
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"Real drama... A crime caper story told with a Scouse accent." - "Independent on Sunday"
Praise for "Powder":
"Tells it like it is... Sampson is never better than when revelling in sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll." - "The Times"
Praise for "Powder":
"Tells it like it is... Sampson is never better than when revelling in sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll." - "The Times"
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Sampson's first two novels ("Awaydays" and "Powder") were brilliant, savage, witty, and had a marvellous sense of time and place. He dropped the ball horribly with "Leisure", but I'm happy to say that he's returned to brilliance with "Outlaws".
Whereas "Awaydays" touched on the fringes of the world of organised crime, "Outlaws" is firmly located there. A bunch of ageing Liverpool hard men who for various reasons want to pull off that last job... this is almost "Reservoir Dogs" with tracksuits and expensive trainers in some respects.
Sampson's real gift is for language, and in "Outlaws" his protagonists all have distinctive voices, different ways of thinking. The inevitability of the climax is perhaps a little disappointing, but the way we get there is highly entertaining.
As a thriller with a high degree of social insight, this stands comparison with Jake Arnott; as a Merseyside tale, Sampson admits of no equals. A fine book.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
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.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
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.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Till Death Us Do Part
The best book I have read since The Punk Poet by Garry Johnson.
It is witty, gritty and pretty heavy stuff with more characters than a decade of Eastenders. Read more
It is witty, gritty and pretty heavy stuff with more characters than a decade of Eastenders. Read more
Published on 1 Feb 2009 by Mr. G. Johnson
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. Read more
Published on 20 April 2003 by A. Ross
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. Read more
Published on 11 Aug 2002 by simon gurney
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",... Read more
Published on 14 Mar 2002
Ultimately disappointing lowlife thriller
I was willing to give Kevin Sampson another go after finding mixed results with his books. "Awaydays" was excellent; "Leisure" was okay; and "Powder"... Read more
Published on 28 Jan 2002
Excellent
Outlaws is without a doubt my read of the year. Having just moved over from Australia, I found the argot a little impenetrable to begin with. Read more
Published on 31 Oct 2001
True account of the Liverpool underworld.
Being from Liverpool this took me home. It remineded me so much of a Saturday night, Sunday morning stories. Lads about town getting their leg over, fighting, having sorters. Read more
Published on 24 Oct 2001 by thebluescouser@aol.com
Fiercely Entertaining
Easily the best book I have read all year. To me, good fiction has to be both entertaining and informative. Outlaws exceeds both these expectations. Read more
Published on 14 Aug 2001
My book of the year
Not enough literary fiction has come from Liverpool. Kevin Sampson has produced an extraordinary study of Liverpool's gangland at the moment when the regeneration of the city meets... Read more
Published on 13 July 2001
Scousefellas!
This is just brilliant - Goodfellas meets The Sopranos in Liverpool's underbelly. It pulls no punches, this book. Read more
Published on 11 July 2001
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
