Overcoming Adversity

Outlaws And Outcasts: The Team No One Loved by Luke Eden is a thrilling contemporary novel that will grip you from the start. It is the second book in The Speedway Series but can be read as a stand-alone.

This is a novel of two parts. The first half has the element of a godfather-type crime novel interwoven with speedway, and the second is pure speedway.

I absolutely loved this book on so many levels – I enjoyed the storyline which was well thought out and executed.

I loved the whole speedway storyline – having been a fan for 49 years, I recognized some of the scenes from speedway at the highest level as well as league matches. I loved the tongue-in-cheek reference to the four starting line girls – as a speedway fan, all I can say is, thank goodness they have been scrapped now.

And finally, I loved the fictional Kidderminster speedway team and the many locations around the Wyre Forest were so familiar to me as I have lived in the area for 36 years! I found myself exclaiming out loud at the many real-life locations! For anyone who lives in the area, this is such a fabulous book, not many novels are set quite so close to home. It was a joy to read.

Luke Eden has constructed the perfect novel for the speedway fan. He intersperses fictional riders with real life ones. Even though the Kidderminster speedway team was fictional (where could you put a stadium on the Bewdley Hill?), I found myself willing them on through the 2023 season!

This is a rags to riches tale; a Cinderella story; a championing of the underdog; a novel of second chances and overcoming adversity. It is absolutely fabulous.

We see that to become a winner it takes not only good equipment but a good frame of mind. It is a matter of attitude and being teachable, of putting away self and putting on team.

I thoroughly enjoyed Outlaws And Outcasts. I certainly hope that Luke Eden will be writing more novels in this series. I devoured the book in just one sitting. As with the first book, this would make a fabulous early evening television series.

JULIA WILSON