Will satisfy true-crime buffs wondering what seamy secrets lie behind the bikers’ vows of brotherhood and silence.
Straightforward account of the transnational rise of outlaw motorcycle gangs since the 1980s.
British true-crime author Thompson (Reefer Men: The Rise and Fall of a Billionaire Drug Ring, 2007, etc.) relies on interviews with Daniel “Snake Dog” Boone, a British member of the Warwickshire Pagans, a small club eventually absorbed by the Outlaws, one of the “big 3” along with the Banditos and the Hell’s Angels (the Outlaws’ bitter foes). Boone’s personal story forms Thompson’s primary narrative, but he also provides a broader journalistic canvas to explain how these clubs evolved from “an innocent throwback to the sixties” to criminal gangs involved in drugs, prostitution and violence. Yet, Boone claims that they were merely a group of jovial motorcycle-riding tough guys until they became involved in a bloody turf war. Simultaneously, the Hell’s Angels were steadily increasing their influence in Canada, Australia and elsewhere by persuading smaller clubs to “patch over.” Instead, the Pagans and other small English gangs formed a confederation, which they called the Outlaws; Boone disingenuously asserts that they failed to consider that this name alone would guarantee war with the Angels. Years of hostilities in Europe followed, including notorious bombings and shootings, leading the “American Outlaw Association” to offer an alliance. Boone and his associates learned of the benefits reaped by the major gangs, including profits from drug trafficking and from sponsoring purportedly mainstream motorcycle rallies. However, Thompson also documents their descent into vicious criminality, assaulting any rival gang member on sight or arranging drive-by shootings; he even includes a chapter on the bikers’ unsavory fondness for sexual assault. Overall, Thompson’s approach is more lucid and less fevered than other recent books on this topic, but this only underscores the depraved nature of this otherwise romanticized subculture.
Will satisfy true-crime buffs wondering what seamy secrets lie behind the bikers’ vows of brotherhood and silence.Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-14-242260-1
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Penguin
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2013
A tour-de-force of true crime reportage.
Godfrey reconstructs a horrific murder with a vividness found in the finest fiction, without ever sacrificing journalistic integrity.
The novel The Torn Skirt (2002) showed how well the author could capture the roiling inner life of a teenager. She brings that sensibility to bear in this account of the 1997 murder of a 14-year-old girl in British Columbia, a crime for which seven teenage girls and one boy were charged. While there’s no more over-tilled literary soil than that of the shocking murder in a small town, Godfrey manages to portray working-class View Royal in a fresh manner. The victim, Reena Virk, was a problematic kid. Rebelling against her Indian parents’ strict religiosity, she desperately mimicked the wannabe gangsta mannerisms of her female schoolmates, who repaid her idolization by ignoring her. The circumstances leading up to the murder seem completely trivial: a stolen address book, a crush on the wrong guy. But popular girls like Josephine and Kelly had created a vast, imaginary world (mostly stolen from mafia movies and hip-hop) in which they were wildly desired and feared. In this overheated milieu, reality was only a distant memory, and everything was allowed. The murder and cover-up are chilling. Godfrey parcels out details piecemeal in the words of the teens who took part or simply watched. None of them seemed to quite comprehend what was going on, why it happened or even—in a few cases—what the big deal was. The tone veers close to melodrama, but in this context it works, since the author is telling the story from the inside out, trying to approximate the relentlessly self-dramatizing world these kids inhabited. Given most readers’ preference for easily explained and neatly concluded crime narratives, Godfrey’s resolute refusal to impose false order on the chaos of a murder spawned by rumors and lies is commendable.
A tour-de-force of true crime reportage.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-7432-1091-3
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2005
BOOK REVIEW
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At times slow-going, but the riveting period detail and dramatic flair eventually render this tale an animated history...
A murder that transfixed the world and the invention that made possible the chase for its perpetrator combine in this fitfully thrilling real-life mystery.
Using the same formula that propelled Devil in the White City (2003), Larson pairs the story of a groundbreaking advance with a pulpy murder drama to limn the sociological particulars of its pre-WWI setting. While White City featured the Chicago World’s Fair and America’s first serial killer, this combines the fascinating case of Dr. Hawley Crippen with the much less gripping tale of Guglielmo Marconi’s invention of radio. (Larson draws out the twin narratives for a long while before showing how they intersect.) Undeniably brilliant, Marconi came to fame at a young age, during a time when scientific discoveries held mass appeal and were demonstrated before awed crowds with circus-like theatricality. Marconi’s radio sets, with their accompanying explosions of light and noise, were tailor-made for such showcases. By the early-20th century, however, the Italian was fighting with rival wireless companies to maintain his competitive edge. The event that would bring his invention back into the limelight was the first great crime story of the century. A mild-mannered doctor from Michigan who had married a tempestuously demanding actress and moved to London, Crippen became the eye of a media storm in 1910 when, after his wife’s “disappearance” (he had buried her body in the basement), he set off with a younger woman on an ocean-liner bound for America. The ship’s captain, who soon discerned the couple’s identity, updated Scotland Yard (and the world) on the ship’s progress—by wireless. The chase that ends this story makes up for some tedious early stretches regarding Marconi’s business struggles.
At times slow-going, but the riveting period detail and dramatic flair eventually render this tale an animated history lesson.Pub Date: Oct. 24, 2006
ISBN: 1-4000-8066-5
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2006
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