Gerald Seymour - The Outsiders

Rating: 4/5

 Review:
Another intelligent novel from Seymour

This is another intricately plotted and minutely researched novel from Gerald Seymour. It is very well-written and makes an enjoyable and interesting read.

In this book, Seymour deals with the fight against global organised crime, and specifically the Russian "mafiya." As always, he sets out not just to entertain but to illustrate the processes and politics of intelligence operations, the moral dilemmas they pose and the effect on the individuals involved. Seymour's agenda is clear early on when his characters lament the tiny budgets allocated to fighting organised crime while anti-terrorism attracts many millions. One of them reflects that, "The threat to her country of international terrorism was minimal compared to the dangers posed by organised crime. The first might splash blood and summon the headlines of outrage, but the other moved in darkness, evil and secrecy, contaminating all who came within its reach... Terrorism scratched spectacular but superficial wounds; organised crime caused terminal and irreversible sickness."

Seymour paints a convincing picture of this in a semi-clandestine operation by MI5 in Spain against a brutal Russian crime boss who murdered an agent years before. The individuals involved are all well-painted from the obsessive director of the operation to the young, innocent tourists who become caught up in it. The criminals themselves and the effects of their criminality are also convincingly portrayed, the plot moves slowly and meticulously but never drags and I found myself very caught up in it. The book does have its flaws, though. The characters tend to make speeches to each other to get the author's points across rather too often, rather than talking in convincing dialogue, but that is always a hazard with Seymour and I found myself just taking it in my stride in the end. The structure is little irritating at times with flashes of random meetings at Europol to allow long, clunky expositions about Organised Crime, and the climax seemed a little implausible to me.

The Outsiders is very good (Seymour always is) but for me not quite in the same class as his last novel, A Deniable Death, which I thought was quite exceptional. In spite of its flaws, though, I can recommend it as an intelligent, involving read.