Dangerous Lady

Maura Ryan #1

by Martina Cole

Ducking and diving is a way of life down Lancaster Road; all the Ryans are at it. But Michael, the eldest, has ambitions way beyond petty crime. Then his little sister Maura decides to follow her beloved brother into the family firm. At 17, she's tough, clever and beautiful - a dangerous lady.

Genres: Crime, Fiction, Thriller, Mystery, Mystery Thriller, Drama, Contemporary

512 pages, Hardcover

First published September 10, 1992

About the author

Martina Cole was born and brought up in Essex. She is the bestselling author of fourteen novels set in London's gangland, and her most recent three paperbacks have gone straight to No. 1 in the Sunday Times on first publication. Total sales of Martina's novels stand at over eight million copies.

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 3 out of 5]

The poorly parented Ryan kids growing up in abject poverty, more or less bring themselves up, in a crime infested poor London neighbourhood and hence live life on the dark-side. Headed and dominated by their oldest brother, who is also unashamedly gay, their family cuts a swathe through London as their reach and power grows. With her numerous brothers Maura Ryan just wants to get on with her life, but she never really had a choice, so when faced with the realisation of her reality, takes to a life of crime like a duck to water, emerging as a very dangerous lady.

It was interesting reading Martina Cole's debut novel; it's chock full of Cole's trademark style, set in the underworld of crime, education and poverty that permeates our so called Developed World. Set in and around London and spanning the 1960s through to the 1990s. This one's a bit more far reaching than her more well known later fare, with its continually underlying and sometimes overriding theme of behind every 'gangland' criminal and crime there's usually a 'well-to-do' or empowered person or people profiting and rarely being judged or called to task. She also interlays the profiteering of the 1980s that saw the ruling classes alongside the criminal classes make lots of money. This first book of Cole's also has some great quotes from working class humour to challenging the way society judges and treats criminals of the ruler classes. Overall what counts is that this was an easy read and compelling enough to not get boring or drag over its 600+ pages! 6 out of 12.

Martina Cole with some gangsta car vibes! :)

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Oh him, he's about as much good as an ashtray on a motorbike'

I have a handful of go to authors who I know wont disappoint me and Martina Cole is one of those authors. This is my eighth Cole novel and her first. I loved it just as much as everything else I've read by her.

Cole gets right into the heart of London West End, the gangs, the drugs, the family ties, the values. The violence, the love, the loss and it brutally raw.

This novel runs a tried and tested formula of Cole's, one family, four decades, you get drawn into the heart of them, the very point where love and hate pump out simultaneously.

From back street abortions to baseball bat murders, Cole takes you so close you're practically vomiting. She takes you behind the bright city lights to the underworld. Oh Glorious London.

Written in cockney rhyme and Essex slang, no one takes me home like Cole does.

[W.H. Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ll tell what I was going to say when I finished this book, my first Martina Cole gangland novel. I had it in mind to muse on the fact that she is a best-selling author, that she certainly knows the world of crime and criminals and that she is without any doubt a compelling story teller. Dangerous Lady absolutely zips along and the reader is drawn into a gripping crime story, a crime saga, dealing as it does with the Ryans, an East End criminal family, over a period of thirty years. It’s a tale of protection rackets, grubby London clubs, gold bullion robberies, violent characters, brutal killings and a most determined and ruthless woman who might never have turned to crime had it not been for sad chance.

Then, having told you what a splendid tale-teller Ms Cole is, I was going to say that she’s not a great writer. Can that be so? Does it make sense? I think it does. Her prose style is clumsy, undeveloped, and her dialogue is wooden. And yet, despite these drawbacks, her story is undeniably riveting.

Well, that’s what I was going to say (yes, I know, I’ve said it) until I thought I’d just check up some background details and I discovered that this was her first book, written when she was only twenty, that she finished it and locked it away in a cupboard for a couple of years. Then, it seems, that quite by chance she came across it and decided to send it to an agent. Seems an unconvincing tale, a bit too romantic and totally unconvincing, but that’s where she set off on her path to fame and the book was an instant best-seller. And more best sellers followed, four of them made into outstanding television serials.

So, I think I ought to hold back in my judgement and read more of Ms Cole’s work. And I have to say that I’m really looking forward to doing so.

In the meantime, I’m looking in the cupboard at home because I fancy I put a really great story in there several years ago.

[Cara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was recommended by a friend and so glad I've read this. Will definitely be reading more from this author, if you like gangland crime give this a try.

[Alison · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very easy read, which stopped me from abandoning the book before finishing. I was curious about why Martina Cole books are so successful, and wanted to read a full novel. The story had no twists, and was very repetitive. The advance signposting of events took away any suspense - it felt like a soap opera rather than a thriller. There were gruesome bits, but nothing thrilling, and in some cases it was repetitive. Sometimes events that could have been a whole book in themselves (e.g. the ice cream wars) were passed over in a few paragraphs. I will read one of Cole's recent novels to see whether her youth when writing Dangerous Lady explains some of the weaknesses - I am just amazed (based on reading Dangerous Lady) how massively successful Cole's novels are.

[Jana · Rating 2 out of 5]

If I were 17 I think this book would have been perfect. Blow my mind in pieces and I would probably go to London and find myself an Irish boyfriend. Hohoho! Just yeah, not entirely 17 anymore and although this books smells like teen spirit, it smells as well like once upon a time gorgeous mister Harold Robbins and once upon a time irresistible mister Sidney Sheldon.

Well Martina Cole would have smelled even better if I were still 17. I think I will never forget Jennifer Parker from Sheldon's 'Rage of Angels' and omg! so loved Tracy Whitney from Sheldon's 'If tomorrow comes'. I read both of these books more than five times between age 12-16. And then unforgettable Jerilee Randall from Robbins' The lonely lady' defined me in so many ways. When I was a teenager, but I still greatly think of this book and I'll never read it again, because I want to keep it perfect in my memory just as well as I keep Diogenes Alejandro Xenos (Dax) from Robbins' 'The Adventures' untouched in my childhood memories. Dax definitely is one of my all time favourite male characters. So goddamn sexy.

I as well will never read this book again, I definitely won't read this book again. But I still see and feel traces from that age. I still drown myself in cheap romances when my sugar level is low and when I need a mental quickie. So Martina Cole just didn't come in a right time, unfortunately. Because I just can't digest this anymore. I try but I can't.

[Gary M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've never read Cole before, though I've been long aware of her especially this book as I remember it first being published when writer friends of mine felt the publisher would never rcoup the huge advance the author was paid. How wrong they were.

This is an excellent, zingy read - a big book but it is so pacy that it flied by and keeps the reader hooked. I absolutely loved it.

[Barbra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this author's books - very gutsy and powerful.

Back Cover Blurb:
No one thinks a seventeen year old girl can take on the hard men of London's gangland, but its a mistake to underestimate Maura Ryan: she's tough, clever and beautiful - and she's determined that nothing will stand in her way.
Together, she and her brother Michael are unbeatable: the Queen and King of organised crime. But notoriety has its price. The police are determined to put away Maura once and for all - and not everyone in the family thinks that's such a bad idea. When it comes to the crunch, Maura has to face the pain of lost love in her past - and the dangerous lady discovers her heart is not made entirely of stone.

[Nessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well that was some rollercoaster ride & boy what a thrill ride it was too. This book was quite the page turner, loved it from start to finish. Great story plot & amazing characters. Edge of seat with anticipation of what will happen next. What more could u want. It truly was a fantastic read.

This was my first ever read of Martina Cole, but it so won't be the last. I'm looking forward to reading all of her books now.

[Gaurav · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heard a lot about Martina Cole. Every book shop highlights her books saying its the best blah blah. So picked the very first one "Dangerous Lady". To be very honest, I did not find this book as great as everyone says. Its a good read, normal crime thriller but nothing that makes you say "WOW". A simple crime story without many twists etc. Even the climax was bit lame.

3 Stars.

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was my first Martina Cole and I really don't think they'll be a second, I couldn't get my head around the extreme violence running alongside the soppy romance between Maura and the policeman
One was enough, thanks.

[Amanda Watchus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally!! All finished an I've got to say that I have never related to anything as much as I had to the main character, Maura. This book had me crying 3 separate times and I felt it all. It was a great story and worth the read!

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

if you like a book that keeps you hooked but has those moments where your not sure you want to keep reading this is the one for you

[Danniiee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Martina coles very first novel. I can see how she sustained a long career in writing after reading this.

I enjoyed this book so much. I found myself laughing at the witty sayings and descriptions she has a clever way of describing people and things.

I found it so hard to put this book down. Following the criminal Ryan family Mickey and Maura lives were sad and brutal. I just loved the story between her and the policeman as tragic as it was. The scene with her baby I think will forever haunt me though.

Can't wait to read another one of her books.

[Plum-crazy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this back in 2007 when my thoughts were that while I felt the style of this book wasn't what I expected, I thoroughly enjoyed it & felt I would certainly read more.

Sadly all the other of Cole's books I've read since, maybe 2 0r 3 of them, have been pretty much identical, full of cold-hearted vicious thugs with no redeeming features so I don't read them anymore.

[Zoe Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the Martina Cole I know and love. I thought I’d go back and read some old school Martina and I wasn’t disappointed. Violence and control prevail here. A story of vengeance, violence and visceral crime. A few chapters had me actually wincing a bit. I haven’t experienced that for a long time.

A very good read. One of my favourites of Martina’s. Maura is an interesting character (and one of my preferred female leads of recent reads). I look forward to reading the sequel!

[Leona · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great listen on audio narrated by the wonderful Annie Aldington.

[Ana · Rating 5 out of 5]

First time reading her work and I'm ready for more. Nicely built.

[Sarah Harding · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s been a while since I read a Martina Cole book I forgot how good they are. Very well written, looking forward to the next one.

[Sasha Lysette · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hated It

What an absolute struggle. Reading this was like wading through a swamp of melodrama and unnecessary detail, while trying not to trip on the whiplash personalities of the characters.

We follow the Ryan family, made up of the mother Sarah, who has delusions of grandeur beyond her station, the father Benjamin, who is 90% alcohol and 10% absent, eight unruly sons and one daughter, the supposed main character, Maura. Sarah and Benjamin only seem to like each other long enough to make a baby and as they are so wrapped up in themselves, this leaves the kids so poorly parented they may as well not have any parents. The oldest son, Michael, decides that the hand he has been dealt is not good enough and naturally turns to crime in an attempt at earning money and a better life. Of course, as his siblings grow up, they all join him on his ventures, Maura included. You’d think with such a large cast of central characters, there would be at least someone for any reader to latch onto. You’d be wrong. With the exception of Maura & Sarah, all the other characters in this book seem to have a personality transplant every chapter, sometimes every page. And never changing to anything admirable. It really felt like Cole had a single list of twenty odd traits and was just recycling them every few pages. Some of the reactions given were also totally off the wall and not in keeping with the cookie cutter character we had become accustomed to up until that point. One example was Michael finding out Maura was dating a policeman. Despite him having a ton of officers in his pocket and touting the phrase ‘look after your womenfolk’ all book, he absolutely loses it and almost punches Maura in the face. And the weird part is, neither of them ever speak about this incident again. The rest of the book, they become incredibly close as if the entire thing never happened. Cole also fell into the trap of having so many siblings in the family, that about four of the sons were suffering from the character equivalent of white room syndrome. They supposedly all looked like Michael, but this felt like a cheap cop-out and most of the time I could just see Maura in a room with a bunch of blurred faces.

And then there is Sarah. The matriarch. A totally deplorable bitch. Accountability is not a word Sarah knows. Everything that goes not exactly as she planned is never her fault, it’s always someone else’s. As each scene with her in passed, her actions became more heinous and my hate for her grew. She treats her children like accessories, popping them out one after the other while simultaneously neglecting her existing ones each time. When Maura is born, her eight sons haven’t eaten in about two days! And of course, this isn’t Sarah’s fault. It’s her husband’s. As if she isn’t capable of getting a job, or not getting pregnant. One point later in the book Michael states that after every birth, Sarah was more than happy to get back to romping with Benjamin almost immediately, even after several stillbirths! Then there is turning a blind eye to her son’s criminal actions until it’s too obvious. And of course, them all being in a gang is not her fault either. When Roy comes to her to admit he’s knocked up his girlfriend at eighteen, she essentially forces them to marry and settle down. And then when the marriage starts crapping out and Sarah catches his wife in the act of abusing their four year old daughter, instead of dragging this child beater across the coals, she allies with her and cusses out Roy for ‘not being there for his wife.’ And this is a friendship that stays for the rest of the book, as if her daughter-in-law isn't an abusive drunk. That's Roy's fault too. When Benjamin has a heart attack, it's the child beater Sarah calls instead of any of her own children. This message doesn't get passed on and the kids show up hours later. Also their fault. Sarah’s reaction to Maura getting pregnant, at seventeen, isn’t to get her to marry the guy. Instead she marches her off to a backstreet abortionist and holds her own daughter down while the procedure is performed. It goes wrong and Maura nearly dies, losing her ability to have children. Does Sarah ever blame herself for this? Nope! It’s Maura’s fault and Sarah even has the audacity to call Maura a ‘neuter’ later in life as well as tell anyone that will listen that Maura aborted her own child. It was infuriating and I don’t normally condone violence, but Michael should have slapped his mother into next week for this. Sarah’s own treatment of Michael is also frustrating. At first, as he starts giving her money, she shows it off to everyone on the street. But soon she learns he is gay. And how he is getting this money. And this goes against Sarah’s ideals of what life she wanted for him. It eventually culminates with Michael and Maura cutting her off, except Michael still sends Sarah money every week. And Sarah takes it, despite not even acknowledging his existence. When he dies, she sheds not one tear, even wishing that she was burying Maura as well! And when she finds out Michael left her a great deal of money, she tries to act all holy than thou by saying she wants to leave it to the children’s hospital because she ‘doesn’t want his blood money’. As if this bitch hasn’t been taking his money all these years. And that Michael hadn’t already left Save The Children £50k. She even kicks off the climax by happily selling her children out to the police. Her stupid arse thinks this will ‘save her boys’, not realising that it leads to the police planning their deaths. She doesn’t give a toss about Maura at this point. And yet when Benjamin has his heart attack, Sarah is begging her only daughter to stay with her and sleep in the same bed because she ‘doesn’t want to be alone’. Excuse me mam, being alone is being kind to you. On top of all this, she is also crazy religious, praying all the time and thinking that she is always doing the right thing. There was no self-reflection to her character whatsoever and I hate that Cole gave her a happy ending. Whether or not Cole intended her to be the villain, Sarah is, and she didn’t deserve a drop of happiness.

With that rant over with, let’s move onto the titular ‘dangerous lady’, Maura. She is the MC, but honestly it shouldn’t take seven chapters (over a hundred pages) to get to following her. And she wasn’t even worth the wait. I was scrambling throughout to work out why Cole decided to call her a dangerous lady. Maura is a drip. As threatening as a fluffy duckling. She spends the entire book either pining over her policeman lover, or just riding the coattails of her brothers, Michael specifically. Rather than getting her hands dirty with the crimes, she simply dictates to others what is going to happen. The only time I can recall that she gets properly involved is when she kneecaps someone. And that’s near the end. Like well done Maura, have a fucking brownie. Her physical descriptions were also very strange. Every single time she sounded ridiculous, almost clown like. But apparently she was this hot woman with huge breasts. Something that came up so much I was starting to wonder if Maura’s descriptions were written by a man cause it really was giving creepy old guy pervving. I just couldn’t see how she was a strong independent woman, when even at the end of the book, she was relying on all the men around her. The worst part of her character was the consequences of her abortion being her turning point to go into business with Michael. It left an awful taste in my mouth, as if the author was saying the only choice in life for a woman is to be married and a mother, or to be a single miserable career woman. Cole basically fridged Maura’s baby. But forgot to develop Maura’s character thereafter.

The blurb of my copy talks about Maura putting her ‘heart on the line’, indicating that the romance is central to the plot. The blurb is a dirty rotten liar. There is a romance, but it has as much spark as a wet match. Maura meets Terry when she is sixteen. And he is twenty-four. Yes the age of consent is 16 in the UK. But that doesn’t mean a 24 year old knocking about with someone who isn’t even an adult yet isn’t creepy. He of course is blindly handsome. But he is also a policeman. Which apparently is a conflict, despite Michael having already got half the police force on the take. Maura decides not to tell Terry that she is a Ryan and begins sneaking around behind her family’s back to see the guy. Because a relationship built on lies is one definitely worth rooting for. They date for eight months, shagging away, before Terry discovers who she really is. I don’t understand how you can have that long a relationship and not even know your girlfriend’s last name. Upon finding out, he dumps her. His job is more important (how charming). Maura at this point is pregnant, because why use contraception? Instead of telling him, she decides to just accept the dumping and head home, lost as to what to do. This made zero sense as up until this point, Maura had quite distain for her family and was hoping to get married and get away. Yet when she is presented with exactly that opportunity, she keeps her mouth shut. Of course, we all know what happens once she gets home and tells her mother. It demonstrated how mind-numbingly stupid Maura was. Thereafter, she spends the next twenty years thinking about Terry and what could have been, as if she had been left with no choice. Any time she comes across him later in life, there is supposedly all this chemistry. For someone she dated less than a year and who discarded her like a crisp packet. It is Terry who Sarah ends up giving the information of her children’s crimes to, and he is then responsible for almost getting them killed. And what does Maura do? Have a heart to heart with him! The worst part was that at the end, Terry and Maura fly away together to Gibraltar. Which is what should have happened when he found out she was a Ryan. They basically wasted twenty years of their lives, and about three hundred pages.

The entire book could have been half its length if it wasn’t for all the filler Cole randomly shoved in. Did we really need a backstory for every single minor character that was going to be killed off the following page? Cole seems to think so. Did we really need scenes that added nothing to what was going on during the chapter? Apparently. I wouldn’t mind so much if all this extra fluff served as a breather between all the thrilling crime action, except there was barely any thrills. Every time a plotline got interesting, Cole dropped it and moved us along to five or six years later, only summing up what happened in a throwaway line to cover herself. A Greek gang has one of the brothers bumped off while in prison. Do we see the back and forth of this gang war? No. There is trouble with the ice cream and hot dog businesses, resulting in a yard being blown up. Do we see more of this? Nope. One of the brother’s double-crosses Michael and gets him murdered. Do we see the retaliation and fallout of this? The double crossing brother’s death? Of course not, that would be way to interesting!

This forgetting of storylines did leave some gaping holes in the story. The Ryan’s were supposedly very well known by everyone, even being in the papers. But no one has nicked them. I know they had a lot of officers on their side, but I’m not buying that every single policeman was and that no one was questioning it. Cole also forgot details. During the climax Terry keeps being referred to a young. Even though he was 44 by then. Maura’s aborted baby is referred to as Sarah’s first grandchild. As if Roy’s daughter born when Maura was only five, suddenly didn’t exist. Maura was apparently the apple of Benjamin’s eye, but we never see this. Little family traditions of the Ryan’s were referred to in passing, but also never seen. On the other hand, phrases were repeated regularly, sometimes on the same page. It was all really a lot of talk and no substance. There was also a disturbing amount of racism and sexism throughout. I understand that it was set from the 50s to the 80s where stereotypes and social practices were different to today, but I felt like it missed the mark. Instead of placing the reader firmly in the setting, the comments came out of no where and almost slapped you in the face. There is an entire scene in the climax where Maura is on the phone to her friend, who is fretting about her daughter dating someone of a different religion. For half a page it is racist remark after racist remark between the two women. The scene has zero effect on anything that happens in the climax. It’s just there. It really felt like being racist for racist sake. And finally, Cole seemed to be preaching this idea that the rich were worse than the criminal gangs of London, except they got away with it because money. Not only is this such a cliché trope of these types of stories, but also ironic considering as by the end Michael and Maura were worth well over a million and were paying people off to keep themselves out of prison. They literally were the bad rich guys who got away all the time.

I was expecting this book to be a nail biting story of gangland London and instead got a boring meandering plot full of unlikeable characters. This may work for you if you like soap operas but personally I wouldn’t waste my time with it.

[Molly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Top of my favourites list. I'm a person who joins for the plot and sticks around for the characters. This book was perfect for my way of doing things.

[Sinduya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely no words. It is the best thriller I've read in a long, long time!

[Sandra Harvey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another brilliant book by Martina Cole.

[Justine · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars
I picked this book up on vacation from a free table at my resort when I had finished the books I packed. It was a decent read. I would probably carry on with the series.

[Sasha Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

actually incredible, i wish they hadn’t killed off so many people but the ending was the best it could’ve been. good mix between a love story and crime

[Nigel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dangerous Lady is a good old fashioned gangster story, following the fortunes of one fictional London gang – the Ryan family and in particular the only girl in the family Maura. It was an enjoyable read although with the story spanning 30 odd years from mid 1950s to late 1980s there was a tendency for it to feel a bit disjointed as the story would suddenly leap forward a few years. This resulted in a lack of tension / anticipation as there wasn’t a single conclusion that the author was leading you to, there was no long term end game that you as the reader were aware of from early in the book (e.g. no single crime of the protagonist to solve, no bit battle to be won, no world crisis to avoid).
There was conclusion to the story that did take a twist albeit not a totally surprising one, but the problem was it was only trailed 2 -3 chapters before it concluded which was not enough time for the author build up much tension.
The character by and large were repellent as people but this was as expected as the author was portraying violent gangsters and their interactions were hard to related. Having said that it was consistent with other fiction (film and book) of the same era that I have previously come across.
Will certainly read the author again.

[Claire Bailey · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was my first Martina Cole book and quite possibly my last. In my possession was the ‘25th anniversary edition of the record breaking bestseller!’

Well I’m stumped. For me it was far too much romance and ‘Eastenders like drama’ for it to be classed as crime fiction. On one hand the novel appears very pro-feminine state and it feels like it really wants to build that sense of ‘girl power’ in the 70’s. And then it decides, no, I’d rather talk more about Moira’s breasts and how large they are. Even her mother thought to take note as they slept naked together as adult women.

Alongside a heavily repetitive narrative. I was given a storyline better suited to that of The Godfather in terms of length and details into the lives of Moira’s family. The endless details of insignificant acts or the sudden backstory of a character that paragraphs later would be wiped from the story only added to the long drawn out nothingness that this book built towards.

I made it to 68 pages to the end and decided to read the last chapter and sadly I don’t think skipping any of those pages made me regret my decision to read the end. As ‘predictable’ she couldn’t handle being a woman in a mans world and needed a man to look after her and save the day.... zzzz!

[Will · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dangerous Lady, by Martina Cole. 1992.

This was Cole's debut novel. She's since gone on to be an extremely popular crime writer in the UK, with over twenty books to her name. This was my introduction to her material. I liked it, despite some minor flaws, like frequently ending a chapter with an exclamatory sentence, or an intentionally ominous line that crudely foreshadows to the reader exatly what we should expect next before it happens. This might only be because this was her first novel, and she was quite young when she wrote it. Or it could be idiosyncrasies of her writing style. I'll have to read more to find out. Even so, none of that was enough to distract me from enjoying the story.

I liked the characters, especially Maura (the main character) and her brother Michael. Even though they are gangsters, I cared about what happened to them. It was also refreshing for me to read a gangster (gangland) novel that was not specifically American. I enjoyed the setting, the "rags to riches" narrative, the romance elements, and the focus on the dynamics of an entire family (the Ryans). I'll be revisiting this author soon.

[Lorraine Berry · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the first book I have 'read' by Martina Cole. Being curious about why Martina Cole books are so successful, I chose this particular novel based on the high rating. I thought the writing was OK and the Narration was pretty good too (apart from the odd Irish accent which sounded more Asian at times!). One thing which really annoyed me was the advance signposting of events which really spoilt the plot in my opinion and tbh I found the whole thing kind of depressing. After finishing the book I feel a little flat and disappointed - in my view, it was all a bit of a soap-opera, without many twists and a climax which was a bit lame. In summary, I would say not to believe the hype .....

[Liane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first time I have read a Martina Cole novel and it was fantastic!! It is not the normal sort of thing I go for -gangland crime and murder but I was surprise and every pleased to learn that I could not put it down! It was so easy to read, even though there are many characters, it switches from one to another with ease and every chapter leaves you desperate to know what happens in he next!

I am looking forward to reading the sequel and I have also downloaded four other Cole novels which I cant wait to get started on! I cant believe I have never read any before, I feel like I have been missing out!