Billy Rags

by Lewis

It's the 1960s and Billy Cracken is a hard man to keep locked up. An austere and troubled childhood has given way to life as a hardened criminal and now status as one of the most feared prisoners in England. He has been moved from one maximum security prison to the next. Guards and inmates alike fear and begrudgingly respect the powerfully-built Cracken. But a life doing his porridge, even if as a minor celebrity, isn't the one he wants. A girlfriend and a child await Cracken on the outside and he'll stop at nothing to get to them. While plotting his escape he crosses a powerful mobster who vows to make Cracken's life hell, and if nothing else succeeds at making his escape all the more difficult, something the ever-rebellious Cracken defiantly relishes. The follow-up novel to the wildly successful Get Carter, Billy Rags is a fascinating look into the lives of British inmates serving time in a maximum security prison. Lewis manages once again to tell an exciting, action-filled story with a soul - demonstrated most clearly in a series of brilliant flashbacks to Billy's childhood and in the end conjures a character that will remind readers of both Tom Hardy in Bronson and Lee Marvin in Point Blank.

Genres: Crime, Thriller, Fiction, Mystery, Noir

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

Reviews

[Tolkien InMySleep · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lewis turns his attention to prison lags, creating an atmospheric portrait of Billy Cracken, and his attempts to escape the life he has created for himself

[David Phillips · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lewis excels at gritty British crime writing and this is another fantastic book. The book starts with the relatively humdrum prison life but, the tension builds up from there on in: the "on the run" middle section of the book is genuinely gripping. Some wonderful phrases and dialogue as you'd expect from Lewis.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*

[Matt Phillips · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic prison break story--one of the best!

[Sarka Kafkova · Rating 3 out of 5]

First half of the book was a long and difficult read, the second half however got much better!

[Maria M · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was written for men (derogatory)

[Kim Hayes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not really my thing but I warmed to it a bit and I liked the second half of the book more than the first. Very much of an era.

[Andy Devereux · Rating 4 out of 5]

👍🏻

[Paddy Hirsch · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you want to get a sense of what British prisons were like in the 60s and 70s (brutal, desperate, medieval), this is an illuminating read. Not as good as GBH or Get Carter, however, I didn’t think.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd give this one 3.5 stars, if possible.

This is the fourth Ted Lewis novel I've read, with the Jack Carter trilogy comprising the other three. Billy Rags, while not as good as the first two Carter books, is better than "Mafia Pigeon," and a good read, even if it sometimes seems like a slightly unrefined work.

The title character is a truly hard man - a criminal in 1970s England who is as tough as they come. The story is portioned in an unusual way. The first half is like a rougher, realer predecessor to the Shawshank Redemption; Billy is in jail doing a 25-year stretch, and he thinks of little more than escape. Following his interactions with the other cons is often really engaging, and even humorous at times. The latter half covers Billy's escape attempt and what follows. While there are some slower moments which seem overly heavy on details, there is plenty of palpable suspense to carry a reader through.

Billy as a character is an interesting one. In the mold of Jack Carter, he is exceptionally intelligent. Also like that other, far more famous character, he is an unrepentant criminal. Billy knows full well who and what he is, which gives him an almost admirable self-confidence. Unlike the Carter novels, however, Billy Rags features a more down-beat tale. There are no mysteries to solve or murders to avenge. There is only a determined and fiercely capable man hell-bent on getting back to his wife and young son. Reading of Billy sizing up and besting the cops and other criminal rivals is plenty engaging.

I must say that the book seems like a slighty unpolished product, though. There are a few parts of the narrative that seem to have needed keener editing, especially involving the several flashbacks sprinkled through the first half of the book. These parts are certainly interesting, and they add depth to Billy. They do seem a tad clumsy at times, though, as if Lewis wasn't really sure of where to place them in the modern narrative.

Though this is not the Ted Lewis book that I would recommend starting with, it's one worth reading if you enjoyed Get Carter (or Jack's Return Home, as it was named in the U.K.) or Jack Carter's Law.

[Sarah Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pacy and gritty.