Loyalty: The brand new novel from the bestselling author

Product Information

Finally, Martina Cole has also published a digital compendium about her life, passions, and her journey to becoming an author. This was an exclusive ebook containing the first chapters from her books and non-fiction components. However, it is unfortunately no longer available.

It is a very dark book and, as well as dealing with gangland crime, there is a lot involving abuse in a children's home, living with cancer, etc, so it can be a difficult read at times and may cause triggers at times. Everyone will probably take different things from the book but it had me crying at the end. Martina Cole’s debut is a great place to begin reading her books. It documents the exploits of a seventeen-year-old girl, Maura Ryan, taking on the men of the criminal underworld alongside her brother Michael, leaving a trail of notoriety behind them. Cole returned to the characters from her first novel a decade later with another installment following the brutal and ruthless character of Maura Ryan. I have read many gangland books inc all of the authors previous but got to say this for me was probably the grittiest, hard hitting and genuinely brutal one yet And yet as the author is so so good at doing it shows friendship and how it can get people through any situation and it shows sacrifice and loveWow! The killer is one messed up mofo! Nothing will sway the killer’s view that what they do is for all the right reasons- everyone else’s fault – the victim’s are “asking for it” SCARY!! Got to mention on a lighter note the Mother from hell,Phyllis,is a classic written character, I couldn’t stand her ( the love to hate was strong ) and as for Judy, well you will be shouting at the book about her….

The actual reveal is comical beyond belief and it simply felt as though Martina had run out of any ideas on how to actually finish the book. At Holly Brookes Children’s Home, the two girls unite in the face of horrific abuse and form an unbreakable bond of loyalty. The final title on this list, Loyalty, has a tentative publication date of June 20, 2024. However, this book was originally scheduled for publication in 2020 before it was pushed out to the following year, then pushed out again. Most of her books take place in London and Essex, which is an area she is quite familiar with from her upbringing. As well, many of her books are standalones, following new characters amid similar themes of family, loyalty, betrayal, and murder. Cole does not shy away from violence and brutality in her writing, painting a grim picture with an inexplicable pull through her storytelling. Who is Martina Cole? A serial killer is in town and the race is on for DCI Kate Burrows. Stop the killer before more innocent girls die...This brings me on to my final point. The misogyny. This book is rife with it. Women in this book are only written as respectable on the condition that they do not wear makeup, are not sexually active beyond a rigid set of perimeters, and definitely do not have a facebook account. The vast majority of young women in this book are slated as disgusting wrongdoers who have made a huge mistake that will tarnish their name for the rest of their lives if, god forbid, they have consensual sexual involvement with a boy of the same age. The protagonist is disgusted with these girls' application of makeup as if these two are even correlated? It makes no sense what is inferred from these and related aspects in the girls lives, the views (along with the language) were archaic and did not fit; useless in the present day and the present book. As well, both The Jump and The Runaway have small screen adaptations in the form of television series. There are trigger points that deal with chid abuse, sexual and physical, rape, violence towards women, drug taking and if you flinch at the C word be prepared to flinch a lot

For Michael, loyalty — and crime — pay. Michael Flynn rises to heights beyond anything the criminal underworld has seen. He owns everyone and he rules his empire with an even but fierce hand. Not sure what anyone else has been reading, but there was no suspense, no drama, and anyone should be able to work out who the perpetrator is by about half way through the book. At Holly Brookes Children's Home, the two girls unite in the face of horrific abuse and form an unbreakable bond of loyalty. No one would dare challenge him. Then the unthinkable happens. Perhaps Michael Flynn is not so untouchable after all, and he must learn that… If you like Martina Cole and have been waiting for this book you will love it but take a breath every once in a while as it is hard going in places with the realismThis book was extremely poor in many respects. The writing was very repetitive, and not in an effectual way. I didn't know how many times someone could 'sigh ruefully' in one short piece of dialogue. I finished the book because I really thought it must lead to something, the intensity and specificity of hatred that the killer had for young girls due to their sexuality was really strong, I thought this must be explained in the end by some facts about the killers life, past or psychopathology. But we never even get that, spoiler alert, in the end we do not get the typical mad speech of the villain who has finally been caught explaining himself, instead in a cop-out the killer has killed himself before questioning. This leaves me to believe that the misogyny expressed by the killer is in fact the opinions of the author. Which leads me to the bigger problem with this book, which goes beyond the writing and story construction. Dara Tailor has had to grow up fast. With a mother addicted to cocaine, Dara must look after her seven younger siblings, until social services split them up for ever.

It is a big read and, to be honest, I found it a little difficult to keep up with the characters and to get to know them but I persevered and the second half of the book made the characters more believable and realistic, and really brought each strand of the story together. This release is a real heavyweight. I was worried that I would notice the changes in writing from Martina and Jacqui but for me it was seamless. But that’s not the only Martina Cole book that has a stage adaptation. First was Two Women in 2010, then the production of The Graft in 2011. Both also had runs at the Theatre Royal Stratford East.

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

I feel annoyed that I wasted my time and money on this apology for crime fiction. Oh the temptation of the station bookshop with a long train journey ahead. I am in agreement with some other reviewers on here. How anyone can read this book and give it 5 stars is beyond me. I like a good thriller/crime story and this is none of the above. The Jump was made into a four-part mini-series in 1998. It stars Adrian Dunbar, Jonathan Cake, Susan Vidler, and John Light.