Outlaws: One Man’s Rise Through the Savage World of Renegade Bikers, Hell’s Angels and Global Crime

Violating one of America’s most violent biker clubs’ code of silence, Daniel “Snake Dog” Boone spoke to Thompson (Reefer Men) some 30 years after the he left the gang, luridly drawing the curtain back on the notorious Outlaws. Boone says, “To truly understand, you have to be there, you have to live through it, or at least hear it from someone who did. That’s why I’m talking.” Sandwiched between extended surveys of the gang and its chief rival, the Hells Angels, Thompson chronicles Boone’s life, from scuffles with local rivals during his youth as a smalltown biker with the Pagans to his time with the Outlaws, which clashed with the Angels over drugs, vice, and membership. Careful to keep the focus on the illegal activities of Boone and his exported Midland Outlaws in Florida, Thompson recounts efforts taken by the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies to stem the swelling violence that both gangs inspired. Colorful, and gripping, Thompson’s account of Boone and his sinister Outlaw world turns most previous biker chronicles upside down, plunging the reader into a harrowing universe full of cruelty, bloodletting, and deadly consequences. Agent: Caroline Dawnay and Olivia Hunt, United Agents. (Aug.)