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A World of Thieves
In 1928 New Orleans, eighteen-year-old Sonny LaSalle is a top prep student and champion amateur boxer -- and he venerates his fraternal twin uncles, Buck and Russell, armed robbers who love their profession. Sonny secretly believes that he, too, is a natural outlaw and persuades his uncles to take him on as a partner. But when a bank job goes bad, Sonny is sent to jail, where he unintentionally kills a policeman who is the son of the most feared lawman in Louisiana, widely known as "John Bones."
After nine months in the infamous Angola penitentiary, Sonny makes a harrowing escape and manages to reunite with Buck and Russell. The carefree trio head out for the boomtowns of west Texas, where the money flows as freely as the oil, unaware that vengeance follows close behind, as the cool, calculating John Bones begins a relentless campaign to hunt down Sonny ... no matter what.
After nine months in the infamous Angola penitentiary, Sonny makes a harrowing escape and manages to reunite with Buck and Russell. The carefree trio head out for the boomtowns of west Texas, where the money flows as freely as the oil, unaware that vengeance follows close behind, as the cool, calculating John Bones begins a relentless campaign to hunt down Sonny ... no matter what.
304 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
20 people are currently reading
138 people want to read
About the author
James Carlos Blake
22 books212 followersJames Carlos Blake was an American writer of novels, novellas, short stories, and essays. His work has received extensive critical favor and several notable awards. He has been called “one of the greatest chroniclers of the mythical American outlaw life” as well as “one of the most original writers in America today and … certainly one of the bravest.” He was a recipient of the University of South Florida's Distinguished Humanities Alumnus Award and a member of the Texas Institute of Letters.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
August 22, 2019
Good story, enjoyable quick read. I did think the author threw in the sex scenes to make the book longer.
April 7, 2022
Most of Blake's outlaw-fiction books involve real people or real events. This one does not. Maybe that's why it's so full of horseshit.
This book is far-fetched guy-fi. Sonny is a educated young robber who kicks the shit out of multiple assailants, multiple times. His GF is an intelligent, wealthy, loyal ballerina who is turned on by bandits and who doesn't want a committed relationship -- only uninhibited sex. His other GF is a 16yo beauty-queen orphan built like a brick shithouse who likes wild sex and armed robbery.
Most of the book is a sappy romance where the gang of lovable outlaws frolic with the pronghorns in West Texas. I did enjoy the last quarter of the book because the ratio of sap-to-stickups got tolerably small.
There is a parallel storyline, written in italics, of a bad good-guy hunting the good bad-guys. Funny, when Blake switches to italics his writing style suddenly turns into a passable imitation of Cormac McCarthy:
Annoyingly, Blake leaves a few loaded guns on stage. If one main character gets a handjob from another main character's wife you would expect that it would come up later in the plot. But no. In Blakes fantasy, that was just a freebie -- enjoy.
This book is far-fetched guy-fi. Sonny is a educated young robber who kicks the shit out of multiple assailants, multiple times. His GF is an intelligent, wealthy, loyal ballerina who is turned on by bandits and who doesn't want a committed relationship -- only uninhibited sex. His other GF is a 16yo beauty-queen orphan built like a brick shithouse who likes wild sex and armed robbery.
Most of the book is a sappy romance where the gang of lovable outlaws frolic with the pronghorns in West Texas. I did enjoy the last quarter of the book because the ratio of sap-to-stickups got tolerably small.
There is a parallel storyline, written in italics, of a bad good-guy hunting the good bad-guys. Funny, when Blake switches to italics his writing style suddenly turns into a passable imitation of Cormac McCarthy:
"Rivermist wafting through the streets and shaping hazy aureoles around the lamplights."Blake is normally good at period-correct details, but I doubt you could get guacamole in San Angelo in 1928. In addition to the anachronistic avocado, I doubt there were many chippies performing roadhead in Model A Roadsters on unpaved West Texas highways.
Annoyingly, Blake leaves a few loaded guns on stage. If one main character gets a handjob from another main character's wife you would expect that it would come up later in the plot. But no. In Blakes fantasy, that was just a freebie -- enjoy.
May 21, 2021
When a work opens with an homage to The Wild Bunch and then later shifts into a retelling of Bonnie and Clyde, perhaps you think even better things are to come. But something goes wrong in James Carlos Blake's telling of the story of white trash Louisianans living a life of crime holding up banks and robbing grocery stores and gas stations. First and most troubling is that it all seems a continuation of the story of swamp trash Blake has already told us in Red Grass River. At least in the latter book there is an indifference to the fate of the South Florida robbers and murderers. In A World of Thieves, on the other hand, I actually relished the demise of its protagonists and singular antagonist, John Bones, an exaggerated version of Frank Hamer, the obsessed Texas Ranger who eventually ambushed Clyde, Bonnie, and the rest of the Barrow gang. In typical Blake form, he wants to achieve the hard to do/impossible: get the reader to sympathize with lowlife outlaws because the specter haunting them is even more malevolent. At least Sonny, Buck, Russell, Charlie, and Belle are supposed to uphold Blake's honor among thieves trope--another Blake borrowing from The Wild Bunch. John Bones is a vengeful, sadistic psychopath.
Otherwise, Blake ends up recycling a great deal of material. He even uses the same jokes that appeared in other works and which were cliched before Blake used them--perhaps as an indication of the ultimate lack of imagination in the lives of his white trash heroes. There is also the familiar swamp settings, fraternal twins, young apprentice criminal, obsessions with penises, and overload of sex scenes straight out of Pornhub, which makes A World of Thieves often seem to be a teenage boy's version of a romance novel. And of course long passages describe gobbling up food, guzzling hooch, and life in a whore house. Blake has been there before and will return there again in later books. Yet in those other books, there was always something bigger than a tale of lumpens trying to live a sordid highlife. His settings were often bigger than his stories. And the psychology of his characters revealing in their borderline existences. Here, that is not the case. Even the usual Blake strongpoint of period dialog lets you down. Sonny and the gang's words sound far too contemporary for a story set towards the end of the flapper era and Jazz Age. And every now and then you're stung with an anachronism, such as Belle "zipping up" her "windbreaker." I knew it sounded odd for a 1920s story, so I checked on it. Zippers came into commercial use for clothing, on boots, around 1925. So you can stretch that part of it. But windbreakers didn't appear until the early 1940s. Blake really needed to research the atmosphere of this novel more fully.
Otherwise, Blake ends up recycling a great deal of material. He even uses the same jokes that appeared in other works and which were cliched before Blake used them--perhaps as an indication of the ultimate lack of imagination in the lives of his white trash heroes. There is also the familiar swamp settings, fraternal twins, young apprentice criminal, obsessions with penises, and overload of sex scenes straight out of Pornhub, which makes A World of Thieves often seem to be a teenage boy's version of a romance novel. And of course long passages describe gobbling up food, guzzling hooch, and life in a whore house. Blake has been there before and will return there again in later books. Yet in those other books, there was always something bigger than a tale of lumpens trying to live a sordid highlife. His settings were often bigger than his stories. And the psychology of his characters revealing in their borderline existences. Here, that is not the case. Even the usual Blake strongpoint of period dialog lets you down. Sonny and the gang's words sound far too contemporary for a story set towards the end of the flapper era and Jazz Age. And every now and then you're stung with an anachronism, such as Belle "zipping up" her "windbreaker." I knew it sounded odd for a 1920s story, so I checked on it. Zippers came into commercial use for clothing, on boots, around 1925. So you can stretch that part of it. But windbreakers didn't appear until the early 1940s. Blake really needed to research the atmosphere of this novel more fully.
June 5, 2012
I'm really enjoying Blake's fiction noir. Just like Red Grass River, I found the ending a bit disappointing. However, unlike Red Grass River, the length was much better, not too long. Blake is so gifted at making the reader feel like he or she is right there during the Roaring 20's or whatever historic period about which he's writing. He's also able to do quite well with eloquence in short, simple sentences. Looking to forward to reading more of his novels.
June 13, 2011
Lots of bank robberies. No shortage of women who love them some holdup men. Lots of hearty breakfasts, lunches and dinners. Plenty of drinking. Some prison breaks. A bit of fancy driving. But not much in the way of a story. Blake has done the criminal with a heart of gold story much better in his other books--like Red Grass River.
June 23, 2007
Racy book...Jail, Thieves, Sex, and Bad Jokes...kinda cool period book, but some of the language seemed rather modern...perhaps I just didn't realize "poontang" was a 1920's and 30's slang word...was the author trying to be hip? or am I just ignorant?...we may never know...
September 6, 2020
How it is to be a robber and gangster in the age of Prohibition, and why women love them. Entertaining, but a lesser work than Blake's others I've read.
February 11, 2023
A World of Thieves is James Carlos Blake's historical crime novel set in the 1920s. It shows the gradual transformation of eighteen-year-old Sonny LaSalle into a violent thief. When his parents die, his twin uncles introduce him to crime. He falls in love with Belle, a girl he rescues from forced prostitution, and introduces her to the world of thieves. She grows to love the feeling of being alive that she gets n the middle of a robbery. Simultaneously, John Bones, the psychopathic father of a man Sonny killed pursues Sonny to exact revenge.
The book is mainly episodic to show Sonny and Belle’s transformations. Blake has a great sense of the details of New Orleans, a Louisiana prison, and the dirty Texas towns filled with oil derricks and card games. He makes his characters very sympathetic because, despite their profession, they are extremely loyal to each other. Especially the men, who erect barriers to separate sex from ever falling in love. And yet, at times, they show great tenderness to women. The female characters love the adventure of holdups followed by good times. They want to fall in love but understand that their men could be killed on any job. Very little space is given to the victims, which made me identify and sympathize with the wild lead characters. The uncles are hilarious and the dialogue very good.
The writing is in first person and third person. Sonny is in first person throughout. Blake has an excellent sense of voice for the period. The third person omniscient and close points of view establish John Bones, the psychopath, and build tension to the inevitable clash with Sonny. Blake does a nice stylistic turn at the end of the book to surprise the reader. Some of the descriptions and scenes are uncomfortable and bawdy, but they fit with the writing.
I recommend this book.
The book is mainly episodic to show Sonny and Belle’s transformations. Blake has a great sense of the details of New Orleans, a Louisiana prison, and the dirty Texas towns filled with oil derricks and card games. He makes his characters very sympathetic because, despite their profession, they are extremely loyal to each other. Especially the men, who erect barriers to separate sex from ever falling in love. And yet, at times, they show great tenderness to women. The female characters love the adventure of holdups followed by good times. They want to fall in love but understand that their men could be killed on any job. Very little space is given to the victims, which made me identify and sympathize with the wild lead characters. The uncles are hilarious and the dialogue very good.
The writing is in first person and third person. Sonny is in first person throughout. Blake has an excellent sense of voice for the period. The third person omniscient and close points of view establish John Bones, the psychopath, and build tension to the inevitable clash with Sonny. Blake does a nice stylistic turn at the end of the book to surprise the reader. Some of the descriptions and scenes are uncomfortable and bawdy, but they fit with the writing.
I recommend this book.
February 19, 2025
Less Love, More Mayhem
Sure, it's 99% robberies and escape from Angola, but even ONE percent Love Story gets my back up.
Why don't these guys just get used to the idea that girls aren't gonna read their books anyway? I don't know even one man who likes Love Stories. Not one.
They remind me of those Hollywood chiselers: it's not good enough to get people to go to their movies, they always try to get a Hit Song out of it too. Greedy.
Sure, it's 99% robberies and escape from Angola, but even ONE percent Love Story gets my back up.
Why don't these guys just get used to the idea that girls aren't gonna read their books anyway? I don't know even one man who likes Love Stories. Not one.
They remind me of those Hollywood chiselers: it's not good enough to get people to go to their movies, they always try to get a Hit Song out of it too. Greedy.
January 17, 2018
A World of Thieves was a thrilling story about a young man who follows in his uncles footsteps and becomes a a world-class thief and gambler. This book has a lot of unexpected twists and turns that make it a good read. The ending is very surprising and makes the whole book worth reading.
January 11, 2020
Very engaging perspective from criminal point of view. Buck, Russel, and Sonny pulled in enough money to actually do something else. But their foresight was limited to the next day.
March 11, 2017
3.5 stars, rounded up.
Fun and well written, and the main antagonist (if he can be considered such) has only about 20 pages total but is a great character. Could have used one or two fewer heists in depth (as it bordered on redundant) but that's ok.
Fun and well written, and the main antagonist (if he can be considered such) has only about 20 pages total but is a great character. Could have used one or two fewer heists in depth (as it bordered on redundant) but that's ok.
April 12, 2014
The last gangster genre novel of Blake's I read was Under the Skin, which was a hell of a fun ride, but was definitely a couple notches below his more literary work in Wildwood Boys and In the Rogue Blood. I'd put this book off for a while, thinking it would likely prove to be a similar fun-but-not-as-brilliant ride as Under the Skin was. As is almost always the case with Blake, I'm pleasantly surprised by this novel, because it has the gangster era good times of the old Warren Beatty-Faye Dunawaye Bonnie & Clyde, but it digs much deeper into the characters, their interactions and relationships. The result is a book that reads like the novel version of Miller's Crossing: a sharp, intelligent story that offers keen insights into human nature and the nature of relationships, while keeping the action cranked up enough to make the pages turn remarkably fast and maintaining all the style and edge of the 1928 New Orleans in which much of the narrative is set. There are just a couple of minor irritants that keep me from giving the book the same 5 stars as its predecessor (Wildwood Boys), but they really are minor and don't take away from the fact that this book is both a great piece of literary fiction and a ride through an historical era (much of it happening in parts of Texas I'm familiar with now, so it's cool reading about them in the oil boom years) that's great fun from beginning to end.
November 19, 2010
Finally Blake scratched me where I itch! His writing style has always captivated me but his story telling fell a little short. Not this time. The cumulative summary of male emotions in just a couple charachters was pinpoint and dead in describing how so many of us feel over the course of a lifetime. It all finally came together perfectly in this story of greed, temptation, and emotion in the roaring twenties.
September 4, 2010
This book was nothing but fast paced action, witty dialouge, and just an overall great story of a young man's sort of "coming of age", of his struggles to find himself in the world of outlaws, thievery and "easy money". I'd have to say this is definitely a favorite. The characters were wonderfully put together and were so easy to love.
April 27, 2015
Enjoyed World of Thieves by James Carlos Blake. Just like most of his other novels I've read, very graphic with lots of gun action and plenty of bloody injuries and deaths, mix in some disastrous fires and plenty of steamy sex and a bloodline of crime characters. Not a 5 star Blake novel but well worth the read.
March 5, 2012
Why didn't anybody tell me that Elmore Leonard and Jim Thompson fathered a wayward child by the name of James Carlos Blake? Think I'ma gleefully make my way through his wickedly violent oeuvre with relish.
August 25, 2012
Book was very good. Not only a book about crime, also a book about love. Written very well, worded as it would have been in the time period that it is about. Good read, that is easy to g
et through.
et through.
December 7, 2014
a big bore.
starts off well and is fast paced and so hook you up. But as it progresses it falters off with no coherency In revenge motive and continuous robbing done by 3 fellows. ending also doesn't live upto expectation.
starts off well and is fast paced and so hook you up. But as it progresses it falters off with no coherency In revenge motive and continuous robbing done by 3 fellows. ending also doesn't live upto expectation.
April 9, 2021
An absorbing tale of a family of thieves; at once brutal and charming, it illuminates a slice of life in prohibition-era Louisiana and Texas. The characters are masterfully etched and the story fascinates from beginning to end.
November 11, 2007
I love, love, love J.C. Blake. This is another gem in awesome storytelling.
August 12, 2008
A Roaring 20's-era crime novel from the mind of master storyteller James Carlos Blake...simply awesome stuff!
Recommended!
Recommended!
May 21, 2009
Very well written. The ending was perfect.
June 20, 2013
Another fast-moving and gritty tale of American outlaws from the master of the genre.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews