Great read about Liverpool as a city - Rated 
Great read very honest and a all the more disturbing because its true. Having been in the Grafton many times I know how real the book is. I read liverpool stories as often as they are published. Rad Soft Target by Conrad Jones. its set in the city Fantastic reading!!!
superb read - Rated
I don't know about you but normally when I read a book of this sort involving violence, and organised crime. I tend to find that my eyes roll to the back of my head a lot while thinking why am i reading this catalogue of events, which just serve to show us how hard the subject is; and how he is to be feared etc, etc without showing us any substance or reasoning behind his actions other than to save face. Here though in this 200 odd pages we have the likes of which I have never read before in a true crime novel, and that is reasoning, intelligence of thought, and acceptence of guilt.
We firt meet the man Stephen 'The Devil' French when he talks about growing up in the southend of Liverpool, born into a mixed race family ( I live in the north end Walton). The area he lived in was Toxteth, it's an area that was as underprivelleged then as it is today to say the least, and from this point you get the sense that the subject would have done anything to escape the 'ghetto' as he calls it. He starts out his criminal life as a mugger and house burgler.
He tells us about the Toxteth riots, and it is here he reveals something that shows us that he is not your usual violent brute of a man. He explains that after the riots the police could not come into the area, the recession was well under way which resulted in no money, and no jobs. So where was the money going to come from? Drugs!! it's not just econimics that aid the selling of drugs but also the social enviroment (something I never ever considered). so really we get his thoughts and analysis of the situations he finds himself in at various times. this continues right through the book, which only adds to the enjoyment of it.
A majority of people who have read the book accuse Stephen of being Racist. I'm white and did not find that he was, or is. This is because I understand that for a long time in Liverpool, it was an us and them attitude from both races, and at various times his associations with white people have led to conflict. An example of which is when he is working at the Grafton (imagine the bar out of Star Wars crossed with Fraggle Rock and you have the Grafton). He is running the door of a club at a time when racism was stopping black people from crossing the door as a punter, let alone working there and he has a run in with a predominantly white firm who want him off the job. After the initial hostilities we see that Stephen goes on to tell us that he became friends with the ringleader of the gang, and was genuinnly saddened by his death.
I do have some issues with it though, well a couple of questions more than anything. what did his girlfriend do for him to walk away from her? and did he really say when he got his bail from his missus dad who was in the real thing. 'you to me are everything'? What a pearler, he's a legend for this line if nothing else. wherever you are Stephen it was a good read. Good luck to you!
Seemed Racist. - Rated 
I stopped reading this book after the line 'I only taxed WHITE dealers', so i have to agree with Macca it did up to that point seem a bit anti-white. There maybe more information further on in the book that would retort this view but i deplore any form of racism and it just put me off reading any further, pity without lines like the above and mention of black panther groups etc it could have been a good read. I have read countless true crime books and never read a line saying they only targeted a certain race for any type of action.
If it's not racist why would the author find it necessary to have to post a review to say to the contrary.
betty boop - Rated
Can I just say I have never really been into "True Crimes" but ordered this book for my hubby as I had heard him mention it.
I have just finished reading it and what a FANTASTIC read it is. After just reading the Preface and Prologue I didn`t want to put this book down.
Its hard to believe that these things really happen as they normally only happen in films.
Sympathy for the Devil - Rated 
They say these are the only two things in life that are guaranteed.... Death and Taxes...
And as Monsieur de Ville AKA Stephen 'Terrible' French might have asked (and MUST do in the film version!!) "Can you really afford to experience both in the same evening?"
The Dantean vision of a furious, balaclava'd Stephen French karate kicking down front doors and demanding money and/or drugs with menaces, brandishing a Luger in one hand, a steaming Rowenta Cordless in the other and quoting liberally from Machiavelli and Sun Tzu while flabby Scouse smack dealer victims lose control of the bodily functions and squeal for mercy through their Gaffa tape gags -- is not an image that readily leaves the mind's eye.
But Graham Johnson's latest offering is no rip off job.... If you like well written True Crime books or British gangsterism or are from Liverpool or have any interest in the socio-criminal effects of the Thatcher era you could do a lot worse with 5.99 than go out and buy this book.
The behavioural seeds of today's murderous black-clad, hooded wannabe "gangsta" nihilists were sown by the criminals and politicians (a tautology?) of Mr. French's generation - a fact he is honest enough to acknowledge...
But having helped create the problem, can penitent gunmen like the Frenchman, a likeable and intelligent individual in real life, now become part of the solution for the sorry state we're in? The jury is still out on that one.
Nevertheless, incendiary stuff.... breathe deeply and you can almost smell the sulphur.
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