The Outsiders

Written by Gerald Seymour

Narrated by Jonathan Aris

They used to meet for a smoke behind the MI5 building. They were disbanded after the death of the youngest member of their team at the hands of a Russian gangster. Now, suddenly, the Graveyard Team is being called back together. Word is that the gangster is staying at a villa in Spain - the Costa del Sol being a multi-billion dollar hub in the worldwide drug trade.

The Outsiders is vintage Seymour: action, suspense, brilliant characterisation and fascinating insight into a full-scale war - the war against organised crime, which is happening all around us, every day

• Language: English
• Publisher: W. F. Howes Ltd
• Release date: Jul 5, 2012
• ISBN: 9781471204319

Gerald Seymour

Gerald Seymour was a reporter at ITN for fifteen years, where his first assignment was covering the Great Train Robbery in 1963. He later covered events in Vietnam, Borneo, Aden, Israel, and Northern Ireland. Seymour's first novel was the acclaimed thriller Harry's Game, set in Belfast, which became an instant international bestseller and later a television series. Six of Seymour's thrillers have now been filmed for television in the UK and United States.

Reviews for The Outsiders

[Denise · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is Seymour.'s best. NARRATOR HAS DRY MOUTH HORRID NOISES. If you can stand the papping noises and the sound of him moistening his lips after every 4 or 5 words, you will love the writing. Great story line and wonderful cast of characters

[col2910_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Synopsis/blurb.....Winnie Monks has never forgotten - or forgiven - the death of a young agent on her team at the hands of a former Russian Army Major turned gangster. Now, years later, she hears the Major is travelling to a villa on the Costa del Sol and she asks permission to send in a surveillance unit.They find an empty property near the Major's. The Villa Paraiso. It's perfect to spy from - and as a base for Winnie's darker, less official, plans.But it turns out that the property isn't deserted. The owners have invited a young British couple to 'house sit' while they are away.For Jonno and Posie, just embarking on a relationship, this is supposed to be a carefree break in the sun. But when the Secret Service team arrives in paradise, everything changes.________________________________________I picked up my first Seymour book last year, which was his debut novel, Harry’s Game – first published in 1975. Enjoyable it was too with a four star rating on the Keane scoreboard. The Outsiders is his 29th book and was released last year.This time around the story was a bit more complex with various players in separate strands of the British intelligence services, along with European equivalents, several Russian groups – both operating on the far side of legality, a couple of low-life Costa criminals and an unwitting couple of holidaymakers-cum-house sitters. Seymour’s depiction of the Costa del Sol and its changing landscape both physically and ethnically with the influx of Eastern European mafia and money, and the local authorities tolerance/indifference to it in these cash straightened times was eye-opening and disturbing. Whilst his book is fiction, I would have to believe that the author’s research would in fact support these illustrations as having some factual standing. Maybe I don’t get too much European news, living as I do in my cave in Leighton Buzzard, but I was wholly unaware of this development, or maybe it just hadn’t registered.Seymour also reminds us that the good guys don’t always dress in white, blurring lines of both legality and morality in the interests of a result. Does the end always justify the means, or do we play by the rules? Interesting characters, decent storyline, compelling situations racked with tension, mainly delivered at pace and with an ending that remains in doubt until the last (nearly).Very enjoyable and a great way to start my new reading month. I just need to read more of the 27 books that sit in the middle. 4 from 5Borrowed from Leighton Buzzard library

[hagelstein_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Gerald Seymour has an affinity for outsiders, outcasts even. Those who get the job done although the odds are overwhelming against them. The Outsiders is an excellent book, but I’m not sure I’m totally buying into the premise. It’s the first time I can say that about one of Seymour’s many stories.The Costa Del Sol, in Spain, has been home to British expatriate criminals for years. Now the Russians are moving in. A Russian major who was responsible for killing a British MI-5 agent years ago is scheduled to meet another Russian crime figure at a villa in Mallorca. The leader of the MI-5 team, Winnie Monks, has been waiting for this moment for years. She has sworn to get revenge for her agent. An operation is put in place to get the major arrested. The Spanish government refuses to cooperate.An ineffectual British couple, young and clueless, is vacationing in the adjoining bungalow. The very bungalow where an MI-5 surveillance team chooses to camp out to get eyes on the target. The surveillance team is joined by a washed-up sniper that Winnie has befriended. When the Spanish refuse to cooperate, the surveillance operation turns into an assassination operation.I won’t give more away, but as in all of Seymour’s plots there are no easy answers, not much goes the way it should, and nobody acts in a simplistic fashion. This is a truly suspenseful book, but there was always a question in the back of my mind about a couple of the characters: Would they really do this? Even with that in mind, this is an extremely well-written suspense novel, as are all of Gerald Seymour’s books.

[edwardsgt · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A well-researched, if depressing story about the economic problems of Spain and a dependence on crime, smuggling (people, drugs, cigarettes), prostitution etc to maintain the economy.

[cat3lib · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Overly repetitive, irritating characters and far fetched scenarios. Not inclined to listen to another by Gerald Seymour, though I have say it was very well read by Jonathan Aris.