One of the initial novels written by Martina Cole was called ‘The Runaway’. It was published in the year 1997 by the Headline publishing house. The plot of the novel revolves around the lives of the main characters Eamonn Docherty and Cathy Connor. In the opening sequence of the novel, the main characters Eamonn Docherty and Cathy Connor are thrown on the streets of London’s sleazy East End and they are left to be on their own. Having grown up as the child of a prostitute, Cathy’s life becomes miserable, which leads to a disturbing ordeal as she does not have any other choice or anywhere else to go. On attempting to run away from her miserable life, she is rescued by Desrae who teaches her how to survive in the society of the criminal underworld. Meanwhile, Eamonn leaves for America along with his father and after some time he becomes one of the deadliest villains of New York. It is believed that when the paths of both of them will cross, they will be a perfect match for each other and it is only a matter of time before this happens. Cathy is beautiful, tough and clever and Eamonn is strong and powerful. Hence, if the two meet they are not going to run away again and will hopefully lead a happy life. When the bodies of missing schoolgirls start turning up, former DCI Kate Burrows is dragged out of retirement. Cole lives in a Grade II listed, 15th-century manor house near Sevenoaks, Kent. [1] She also has a house in northern Cyprus. [13]

When Georgio Brunos is sentenced to 18 years in prison for his part in a bank robbery, his wife Donna decides it's finally time to step out of her little cocoon and take over all of her husband's work. This includes working alongside some old friends of his to help him escape (or "jump", hence the title) from prison. However, as she starts to dig deeper into her husband's dealings, she realises there's a lot more to him than she ever realised in their 20 years of marriage. 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. Finally, blessedly, the plot is wrapped up in what seems like a incredibly rushed and predictable finale. Of course, I welcomed this swift finish, but couldn’t help feeling some of the previous shite could have been condensed to make way for a more fulfilling end. James, Erwin (28 October 2010). "Britain's queen of crime: Martina Cole". The Guardian . Retrieved 5 November 2015.Additionally, she has appeared on ITV's This Morning, The Crime Thriller Club, The Wright Stuff for Channel 5, ITV's popular daytime show Loose Women, The One Show and two episodes of Pointless Celebrities for BBC One, and a 2004 edition of The Culture Show. I have long since been a Martina Cole fan but there are many books I still have not read - this is one of them. Pemberton, Max (27 October 2013). "Martina Cole's arthritis is the real crime". The Telegraph . Retrieved 5 November 2015. I still had a lot of the same issues with this book as I did with No Mercy, but because the plot was so intriguing and the tension was built really well, they didn't bother me as much. For example, I found the writing style, especially in dialogue, quite clunky, and there was a lot of homophobic/transphobic language used. Maybe because of the time and the environment the characters were in, I can understand why it was there, but it was still uncomfortable reading.

I hope Martina's new book, due for release later this year, will be just as good as some of her earlier work, including this book. A four-part TV adaptation of Dangerous Lady was broadcast on ITV in 1995, and in 1998 ITV broadcast a four-part adaptation of The Jump. The Take was serialised on British television on Sky1 in June 2009, which starred Tom Hardy as Freddie. Sky1 has also commissioned an adaptation of The Graft, which has yet to go into production. [7] But they have no real leads ... and there's more to these murders than meets the eye. Can Kate take the killer down before another schoolgirl dies? Martina Cole - Sky Arts: The Book Show". Archived from the original on 17 May 2011 . Retrieved 21 October 2011. Joseph/Bella and Christina – I am not going to say too much about these except I found Joseph to be a bit weak in his inability to be a man and make a choice. Bella is one crazy b*tch! Loved how that storyline panned out! 😱 and poor Christine – right place, wrong time in life….that is all I am going to say about that!

Publication Order of Maura Ryan Books

The day of the escape dawns, but things don't go to plan. The distraction goes more or less to plan, but the escape doesn't go so well.

About Martina Cole". www.martinacole.co.uk. Archived from the original on 20 September 2012 . Retrieved 5 November 2015. a b c d e Cadwalladr, Carole (31 May 2009). " 'The Booker prize money wouldn't even keep me in cigarettes' ". The Observer . Retrieved 23 June 2018. 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. Donna ends up on her own and very rich. She's looking forward to being her own person in the future. Most of her novels feature a female protagonist or antihero, and some take place within the Irish community in and around London. [4]This 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. 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.

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. Since her 20s she has suffered from rheumatoid arthritis after breaking both arms as a child. The arthritis has worsened over time, and now makes it painful for her when writing. [16] [17] Books [ edit ] But when Georgio is sentenced to eighteen years for armed robbery Donna’s world falls apart. Innocently she believes Georgio’s claims that he has been set up and when he says that he fears for his life, she agrees to help him escape with the help of Alan Cox, an old friend of Georgio’s. She married for the first time aged 16, but the marriage only lasted a year. She had her first child at the age of 18. [3] Her parents both died when she was in her early 20s. [1] This is all such a shame from such a well respected author and I have read Martina Cole books previously and enjoyed them.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. In December 2011, readers using madaboutbooks.co.uk voted their favourite Martina Cole book. The Take won by 780 votes and was put at the top of the list of Martina Cole novels. Goodnight Lady came second, followed in third by Maura's Game.