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

2005-09-04 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.