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I'm baffled by the harshness of so many of the reviews - I read this, much by chance, having no prior experience of the author and I really enjoyed it!
Yes, it's hardly original, and it's cliched but the characters are good, the pacing is well, pacey and the settings and times are vividly portrayed. The story spans a number of years, and it does have a touch of the epic - Anyone that enjoys London Gangster fiction should get something out of this.
It's very violent in parts, the author walking a tight line between graphic description and leaving the many acts of horrific torture & murder to the imagination.
Parallels do exist to The Krays, and it was hard not to imagine scenes from that movie.
All in all, a decent enough crime thriller/drama worth the price.

boring, a regurgitation of her other books (1/1 people found this helpful)

This is the fifth Martina Cole novel I have read, and where I enjoyed the first few, by the time i got to this one, I could predict the lines that were going to come out the characters. More than half of it feels like it has been written just to bulk out the book and meet the required number of pages. The theme is getting boring, although I realise that this is the Martina Cole style, but how many ways can you tell a story of London gangster families who love their mums/kids/women, swear too much, smoke endless fags etc etc? i think if this is the extent of Martina Cole's writing skills, her publishers should have left it at a 4 book deal.

Possibly the worst book I have ever read (3/5 people found this helpful)

I have read several novels written by Martina Cole - DANGEROUS LADY, THE TAKE, THE KNOW and TWO WOMEN and I must admit that I thought each one was good, if not better than good. This one however is in a different league. I rarely order books months in advance of the publication date but CLOSE was one of the few I chose in 2006 for this costly indulgence. I have been annoyed ever since! If I had written my review back when it arrived (I read the book immediately) I am afraid that censorship controls would have prevented my words being published here. I was angry because I spent hard-earned money on a book which, now that I have had more than 18 months to collect my thoughts, is complete and utter rubbish and when I think of the number of trees that were sacrificed in the making of the tens of thousands of copies, well it brings a tear to my eye and I'm no tree-hugger I assure you. As so many others have commented, Martina Cole seems to have nothing at all in the way of new ideas for a storyline or character creation; while delving into her own portrayal of the criminal underworld she (once again) offers no balance by stereotyping the police as useless airheads, clearly demonstrating her lack of knowledge of police procedure and instead depending heavily on the characters she manufactures. And early on in the tale the reader wonders if some or all of these characters are nothing more than re-workings of very similar characters in previous Martina Cole stories. The men tend to be seedy, repellent and abusive and whatever sex takes place is devoid of love or erotica, indeed incest seems to be a running theme through several Cole novels of late. It was horribly fascinating the first time, but when it's recycled as it has been in this novel, it holds absolutely no appeal whatsoever and gives me the impression that this once admired writer has lost all sense of direction and creativity. I would strongly urge you not to buy it new or second-hand, nor even borrow it from your local library. Your time spent reading it, no matter how short, would be totally wasted.

Terrible audio book (0/0 people found this helpful)

This has got to be one of the worst audio books I have ever listened to. Although the storyline is good, whoever abriged it for an audio book should have listened to how it comes accross. It's as though someone said ok, abridge this book for me, but you can only have one line from each page, or if vital, a paragraph. So Lily works in a factory, bad life at home, meets Patrick, gets married, has baby, and that's in the first chapter. When you listen to a Martina Cole audio book, it's nice to know what makes the characters tick, how they've come to be who and what they are. The Take abridged works ok, but not this book. I tried to sell it on eBay and nobody wanted it, even at a bargain price! That says it all!

not so bad (0/0 people found this helpful)

This is the first book I have read of Martina Cole and I really enjoyed it... looking at the other reviews I am keen to read others now if this is her worst.... I agree sometimes the language was over the top but a fun read all the same.

Martina Cole

Reader Reviews:

Pacey, Violent & Gripping........ (0/0 people found this helpful)

boring, a regurgitation of her other books (1/1 people found this helpful)

Possibly the worst book I have ever read (3/5 people found this helpful)

Terrible audio book (0/0 people found this helpful)

not so bad (0/0 people found this helpful)

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