Outlaws [Import] [Paperback]

George V. Higgins (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 422 pages
• Publisher: Time Warner Paperbacks; New Ed edition (September 19, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0747409714
• ISBN-13: 978-0747409717
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 1.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A Waste of Time, March 17, 2005

By 

GeJoin "Grammie" (Missouri) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Outlaws (Mass Market Paperback)

I am a fan of this genre book-crime and criminals, police, lawyers, justice. When I read the glittering reviews, it seemed a good choice. Several reviews spoke of the dialogue that "crackles and glitters", sounds like "eavesdropping on someone at the next table", "masterful", "convincing". It is none of the fore-mentioned. It's contrived, unbelievable, stilted. The worst part of the dialogue, however, is Higgins bad habit of repeating the character's dialogue, as if you hadn't read it the first time.

The plot is complex, too complex. It jumps from one scene to another without any transition. New characters appear miraculously and then disappear for the rest of the story. Many questions and resolutions go unanswered.

I wish some of the books I read would never end. I thought Outlaws would never end! I couldn't wait for it to end!

3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars All Talk, No Action!, March 10, 2002

By 

"layback76" - See all my reviews

The title above is a perfect description of this novel, if I do say so myself. Higgins had garnered a lot of critical acclaim, I believe, based mostly on another novel, The Friends of Eddie Coyle, that I've never read. And I don't think that I ever will after slogging through this one.

Here's my primary complaint. This book is composed almost entirely of dialogue. There is no action whatsoever! I think this is a fatal mistake, considering what this novel is about.

A privileged group of pseudo-radicals finance their 'movement' through a series of daylight heists of armored cars. They are eventually caught after they decide to expand their crime spree to include the robbery of a Boston bar/restaurant fronting for drug dealers. The result is 7 people shot to death, execution style. All this sounds exciting, doesn't it?

Well, it AIN'T!! The reader is not privy to any action scenes at all. All that happens is that we get characters talking about what happened, after the fact. For one example, the state police discuss their plan to capture this group of armed thugs. Then, the next day, we're told how the plan worked to perfection, and everyone is in custody. UGH!! This makes for really dull reading.

The plot itself is relatively interesting, actually. As a lifelong Bostonian, I usually like novels that take place here in this area. But not this time. Yes, I recognized the places where the characters were sitting when they discussed the real plot of the book, but so what?

The funny thing is that this probably could have made a pretty good movie, considering the subject matter, in the hands of an action director. But as a novel, it's really dull. There's a lot of potential here, in the plot, but Higgins mismanaged it terribly.