News: Outlaws Inc is out in the USA, & the first (great) reviews are coming in…
Good morning America! Just a quick update on the eve of my US publication date to thank the American media for the great response so far, and especially the quality papers for reviews like this one from the Baltimore Sun calling Outlaws Inc. “a nonfiction tale more suspenseful and compelling than any espionage novel” and…
Article download: Esquire takes up the story
This month, Esquire magazine took up the story of Outlaws Inc., publishing a three-page expose of the phantom cargo trade in the Middle East. You can read the feature for free here by clicking on the layout image below and opening it on your desktop.
Outlaws Inc is Maxim magazine’s big adventure
Maxim magazine has made Outlaws Inc. its adventure of the month for August, with a three-page feature interview on some of the key locations featured in the book. From mafia-run Belgrade to the bootleggers’ paradise of Kabul and war-torn Africa, the feature takes a long, hard look at just how the guns, drugs and gold…
Latest: Outlaws Inc makes front page news for the Huffington Post
The newly launched UK edition of the Huffington Post today picked up on Outlaws Inc., featuring the book’s whistle-blowing on the role of arms-traffickers in the Somali famine as its front-page story. The August 4th edition ran Matt’s exclusive 1,000-word outtake ‘Death dollars and déjà vu in Somalia: how the seamier side of the international airlift…
News: Australia wakes up to Outlaws Inc after “sensational” ABC Breakfast show interview
This morning I was a guest on Australia’s no.1 breakfast show on ABC. During the link-up interview with host Mike Rowland (a still from the show, above), we talked about how the cut-throat economics of the global marketplace in everything from aid delivery to the food in our supermarkets feeds a shadow industry of mercenary…
Launch party goes with a bang
The champagne launch party for Outlaws Inc. went with a bang this week at London’s Goldsboro Books, with nearly 200 attendees and word of mouth putting the book at No.2 on Amazon‘s true-crime bestseller list by the following morning. Attendees included many of the detectives, diplomats and monitors in the book itself, plus a couple…
Matt talks about Outlaws Inc. on BBC Radio 5Live
Listen to the first discussion of Outlaws Inc. on Wednesday 1 June’s edition of Up All Night, BBC Radio 5Live’s night-time show – also available on BBC iPlayer. Matt talked to Giles Dilnot about the adventures, investigative work and accidents that informed the book. Once it’s vanished from iPlayer, I’ll try to post a recording…
First preview of Outlaws Inc. hits US newsstands!
The first preview of Outlaws Inc. hit the stands this week courtesy of Libraries Journal. And here it is! Outlaws Inc.: Under the Radar and on the Black Market with the World’s Most Dangerous Smugglers. Bloomsbury, dist. by Macmillan. Aug. 2011. 288p. ISBN 9781608195305. $25. When communism collapses, some Russian military men get together and…
Google, Skype, Hotmail & the FSB: Russia’s hidden heart
Very interesting city, Ekaterinburg. It’s known for a number of reasons, all of which are to do with its somewhat shadowy, secretive character. It was the scene of the Romanov family’s assassination by the Bolsheviks, and the fount of the whole Anastasia controversy/red herring. During World War II, the Russian government created a secret second…
What makes you think it’s not me, officer?
Happy memories of shopping for forged driving licences in Russia’s Urals…