Martina Cole

First, the story. A teenage girl is brutally tortured and killed, in a small town in England. She is among the popular teens at her high school, highly made-up and dressed to look older than she is. Not long after, a second murder. Friend of the first girl and similar in style.

DCI Annie Carr and partner DC Ali Karim are on the case. Annie, however, reaches out to an old friend, Kate Burrows. Kate is now retired from the murder squad, married to Patrick, an alleged criminal. In her time Kate show more had a remarkable record and her seasoned view is valuable. Frequently, then, Annie brings copies of the case files to her to review.

The detectives visit various homes and interview classmates and teachers. Their ace tech person searches online for connections that might lead to a killer, and scrolls through miles of CCTV footage in hopes of catching a glimpse of the abductions. But nothing surfaces. What does become clear is that the woods at the edge of the homes are not covered by cameras, and the woods is where the bodies are found. The bodies are clean of any trace of DNA or other evidence.

So how does he take them? Where does he take them? Where are the actual crime scenes?

My problems with this book:

* The quality of the writing. Frequent misuse of subject and object in sentences, careless writing in general.

* Repetitious. Certain themes are repeated and repeated. For example, Patrick loves his wife Kate. Again and again we read how much he cares about her, but there is no depth to the statements.

* Cole tends to "tell" rather than "show". She tells us how Kate is feeling and why or why Bella is a c**t, rather than let us draw our own conclusions by listening to them speak or watching them act. We learn that newly-discovered daughter-in-law Bella is "mental" because she tells us so. Bella actually says very little, does very little. Throughout we are told how to feel, not shown.

* The F-word. The novel is sprinkled liberally with f-this, f-that, f-ing this, f-ing that. I know that many people talk this way but in this book EVERYONE does. It gets wearing and seems often inappropriate.

* Verbal attacks. Characters go off on others again and again for the same things. Again, repetitious and quick to anger. Doesn't anyone have a level head here?

* Lack of real dialogue. We are treated to short bursts of dialogue and then "it went on from there" or "the conversation took hours". We get no details, nothing in the words to build from, to think about.

* The investigation. The team asks a few questions, gets a few answers, and then leaves. When asked if they want to talk to another student who also knew the victims, they say no, we have enough. It's a joke of an investigation. No real process is followed. No wonder they don't get very far. How about talking a walk in those woods? Look closely for clues. Listen to tones of voice, watch body language.

I finished it so I could say I didn't miss any of it. But I won't bother picking up any other books by this author.

Clearly, though, by her popularity, my opinion is not that of the majority. I hope this falls into the hands of those who will actually enjoy it. show less

This is a very good thriller by, what else, a British woman. Facless is a hard hitting story in the wilds of East London where violence, poverty and crime are simple facts of life. Marie has just emerged from prison, having spent 12 years for murdering two of her friends during a drug induced stupor. She remembers very little about the incident but believes she must have done it. But did she? That is not something she has much time to ponder for she is alone in a halfway house, desperate to show more find her children, and attempting to reach out to her parents and sister who have abandoned her years ago. She has no friends. Her searches lead her to immediate danger. There are people waiting for her, some fearful of retribution , some out to exact some retribution themselves. This is a great escapist read. show less

Some books contain a hint of kitchen sink but The Business is an all-out assault on the senses, heady with steam, eau de sunlight Liquid and a chorus of clattering crockery and clashing cutlery.

The Kitchen Sink drama is not my preferred genre but no doubt some examples are well-written, genuinely moving and deeply perceptive: unfortunately The Business is not one of the above.

Although this is the 15th novel by critically-acclaimed and award-winning best seller Martina Cole, it is my first show more exposure to her and – I sincerely hope – my last.

Repetitive, badly-written, clichéd and boring it is one of the worst books I have read in a long time and yet, I have no doubt, it too will boast a position on some best seller list and almost certainly prove a firm favourite with women who read you magazine and follow The Bold and the Beautiful.

Set amongst the Irish Catholic criminal class in the east end of London this tedious tale follows the misfortunes of the Dooley family from the late 1970s to the present, concentrating on the lives of three generations of women.

Matriarch Mary Dooley appears to be one of those unfortunate Obsessive Compulsives with an over-active thyroid, always busy, always cleaning, polishing, washing, scrubbing and cooking for her gangster husband Gerald and their three children.

Her youngest child and only daughter Imelda is the image of her mum: slender, beautiful and elegant with high cheekbones, dark blue eyes and long, thick blonde hair. But while Mary has only two vices – she is addicted to cigarettes and strong tea which ‘gave her foetid breath and a furry tongue’ – the saintly-looking Imelda embraces sex, drugs and drink from an early age.

Inevitably Imelda falls pregnant but tells her adoring and deluded father she had been raped: dear old dad is incensed and goes on the rampage, killing the father of the child, but dying himself in the process. Mary alone sees Imelda for the sociopath she is, and knows her daughter is a dangerous liar, not an innocent victim.

Despite copious amounts of alcohol and cigarettes, Imelda gives birth to Jordanna, a lovely baby girl who becomes the apple of her grandmother’s eye. But Imelda – now a prostitute – loathes her baby and abuses her constantly, clinging onto the child only because she knows that by so doing she can force Mary into giving her money for drugs.

The trials and tribulations of Imelda are spelled out at length and in graphic detail as the frail little mite begs for her mother’s love only to be rejected, starved and beaten. When the child is two, her mother shoots a pimp dead but blames the murder on the toddler and so escapes retribution: at the time she is pregnant [fathered allegedly by the dead pimp] but after giving birth returns to prostitution.

Three-year-old Jordanna is left to take care of Kenny Boy, her baby brother, trying too looking after and protecting him although by now she is regularly hired out to paedophiles by her mother and sexually abused to such an extent she is rendered infertile.

And things just go downhill from there as Jordanna grows up to be unhappily promiscuous and a drug addict, while brother Kenny embraces crime and becomes a ‘Face’ to be feared and respected well before he reaches 20.

The fact the story is miserable is not what makes it bad; the problem is it is poorly written. When Imelda finds herself pregnant, the young gangster who fathered the baby thinks of it merely as ‘a bellyful of arms and legs’ – a powerful metaphor, but only the first time round. Unfortunately the phrase is repeated again and again.

Underachievers are referred to as being ‘as useful as a chocolate teapot’ – another wonderfully expressive image which however began to loose its potency on its third or fourth airing.

Cole also overuses the word ‘abortion’ as a descriptive metaphor: business dealings, relationships and lives are constantly referred to as an abortion when they begin to go wrong – although the term is never once used to describe the artificial termination of a pregnancy.

Most irritating of all is the enthusiastic misuse of the word ‘decimate’ as a synonym for destroy or ruin: it doesn’t take rocket science to work out that the word means one in ten but in The Business, lives, looks, plans and psyches are constantly decimated.

“Martina Cole is a phenomenon’ the publishers blurb informs us, ‘the only author who dares to tell it like it really is’. If that is truly the case I am decimated because this ‘dangerously thrilling’ kitchen sink drama is ‘a complete and utter abortion’. show less

Appalling. I'll always read 100 pages to establish my views on a book and did so with this. I understand life in the East End would have been tough but this characterization of people must be way OTT. What does these 100 pages depict :- Continuous foul language - sexist and racist language - wife beating to such an extent that the injuries are considerable and hospitalization required - rape - violence and humiliation towards a teenage daughter which includes incest - the wife/mother who show more pretends to ignore her daughters suffering and makes excuses for the husband who has eroded any self respect she may have had - the foul mouthed mother in law who herself gets beaten up by her granddaughter - and thats prior to the storyline of the East End underworld. I was brought up in a similar community at the same period - growing up in a working class family in a Welsh mining valley was not easy but any guy who acted towards women in this way would have had no respect and quickly ostracised in the community. This author is well established so I understand people must be interested to read this but enjoy - how on earh cany you enjoy reading this. show less