The Graft |
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Martina Cole
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Pages: 688 (Paperback)
ISBN: 0747267669
Pub: Headline
Pub date: 2005-06-20
Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 66126
Editorial Review:
Is The Graft up to Martina Cole's usual standard? The unarguable success of her sizable tally of crime novels must be a source of envy to other practitioners. Almost from the beginning, she has gleaned praise for her gritty and pungent fiction. Even the very ordinary TV adaptations of such books as Dangerous Lady stripped no lustre from her reputation, when novels as good as The Know flowed from her pen. Her prose style is always pared down and vivid--which is, thankfully, still very much the case with The Graft.
Nick Leary is having trouble sleeping, what with sultry heat and business and family problems weighing on his mind. His wife is sleeping beside him, when he hears a noise downstairs--and soon he has to decide how much violence he will use to defend his home and family. The decision he makes is to change his life forever. Nick and his wife are taken to the very extremes of human behaviour--and he is obliged to decide how high a price he will pay to keep what he values most.
As ever, Cole exerts an effortless grip throughout her unsettling narrative. We're used to her exuberantly characterised heroines, but the beleaguered Nick shows that's she's just as on-the-nail with her male characters. The edgy plotting has the kind of no-nonsense handling that is Cole's métier. Perhaps a touch more psychological strip-mining of her protagonists would have deepened her achievement, but what the hell--all the right buttons are pressed here.--Barry Forshaw
Reader Reviews:
BORING!!!!! (0/0 people found this helpful)
I think Martina has got lazy as certain phrases and thoughts of characters popped up a thousand times. Boring, badly written, repetative and glad to get to the end.
blah blah blah rubbish (0/2 people found this helpful)
I've enjoyed reading some of Martina Cole's other books, even if they are very similar and repetitive. However this book is absolute rubbish. I gave up after reading nearly 200 pages and waiting for something to happen. Its boring, repetitive and with no storyline whatsoever. This really is the worst book she has written. After wasting my time with this effort I'm not sure that I'll even bother reading any more of hers. The other reviewers were right ... don't bother. Even giving this one star is too generous.
It was disappointing ... "and she knew it" (0/2 people found this helpful)
Martina tells a great story and this is as gripping as the others. However, I got to the point of feeling I wanted to SCREAM if I read "and he knew it", "and she knew it" or, to vary it a bit, "and they both knew that" one more time. For god's sake get the editor to fix this on the next one, PLEASE!! Lynne Truss would also have a field day with the punctuation in some of the speech. Another annoying thing was the "blah blah blah, even as he/she blah blah blah" usage. Call me anal, but this stuff stood out a mile and spoiled what was otherwise a brilliant, thought provoking tale.
Wicked (0/0 people found this helpful)
The Graft is another well written and gripping read...
Martina is not afraid to mention the unmentionables and darker side to human nature...and though it is sometimes uncomfortabl reading some of the more graphic descriptions in the book, it is very compelling..
The ending is very satisfying where just desserts are dished out generously..
Not the best Martina Cole book I've read (4/4 people found this helpful)
The Graft is my fifth Martina Cole book after reading The Take, The Ladykiller, The Know and Broken. While my first 4 Martina Cole books had me gripped from page one I have to agree with others before me.....The Graft wasn't up to Cole's usual standard.
The story starts with the death of a local villain who is killed while trying to burgle the house of local hardman Nick Leary. Nick becomes the hero of the hour after `doing what anyone would have done' when faced with a local thug with a gun in his house in the middle of the night. While everyone applauds Nick for protecting his own Nick is having trouble dealing with what he's done. For a man who maims and kills in the course of his every day why should the death of a villain like Sonny Hatcher upset him so much? That's where the real story lies.
While The Graft had the usual formula of hard men, tragedy and retribution I too felt that Cole spent way too much time focusing on the thoughts and feelings of every character and not enough time on developing the story and moving it along. Quite a big chunk of the 700-odd pages could have been omitted and nobody would have noticed. The story was there, the characters were there.....I just feel the final product was lacking. Disappointing.
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Books -> Subjects -> Fiction -> General
Books -> Subjects -> Fiction -> General AAS
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Books -> Subjects -> Crime, Thrillers & Mystery -> Thrillers -> General AAS
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