The Know

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I cannot figure Martina Cole out as an author. I don't know who her target audience is and I can't figure out what it is she's trying to say to them. This book is more a mystery than a thriller. She keeps you guessing right to the end. Although there are hints throughout.

Martina Cole books in order | Waterstones Martina Cole books in order | Waterstones

The story leads the reader from the initial crime through a network of drugs, burglary, violence and rent boys. We're told the consequences of the choices the characters make and come to our own conclusions as to who's right and who's wrong. There are also a few grey areas. Cole really has taken something we wish never happens but unfortunately it does. She hasn't sensationalized it but approached it with sensitivity and I feel with common sense.This is not so much of a "story", It's just a sequence of unpleasant characters doing terrible things. There's not one redeeming character - NOT ONE! I was convinced that at some point some moral high-ground would be taken and the plot might turn around to produce a happy ending or at least a lesson of morals but it never arrives. Themes of drug use, violence, prostitution, murder etc. are valid themes to explore in a work of fiction, but I was hoping for the author to set an example of what's right and wrong. Martina Cole just shrugs at everything and tries to justify her abhorrent characters committing evil acts one after the other without any consequences. I liked the characters quite a bit. They all had a lot of depth to them, and the themes explored here are different from what I'm used to reading. I liked the emphasis on familial love, and how different groups of people will view morality very differently (although this book hits on one issue we can all agree is disgusting, criminal or not). The characters may have been rough around the edges, but they lived hard lives, and I thought it was really interesting to have a look into their world.

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Jeanette, Joanie's middle child, is the archetypal troublesome teenager, who leaves home and lives with a local no good young man called Jasper. I've enjoyed her previous books, but this one got irritatingly repetitive, and the constant swearing is wearing. Jon Jon, Jeanette and Kira all have different father's, none of whom Joanie can remember, as they're three of many clients. Even before I started reading it, I started recommending it to friends.... who knew I would be disappointed?

The Graft is cleverly written so that you discover more and more about the main characters (including some very big surprises, but I won't tell you what they are !) as you read. The characters have hidden depths and dark secrets that nobody, neither the other characters in the story nor the reader, will suspect until they are suddenly revealed. This is very much a stand-alone Cole ride, as for once she doesn't focus on the women that have to live in the organised crime world of London, this time it's all about the boys. A book that is, as ever completely from the perspective of the community it is set in, seems just that more real. The prime themes include our real and hidden selves; how many men struggle forming real relationships, conspiracies within conspiracies, but most of all it's about the stark reality of trying to live a life on hard drugs and what you lose to live that live. Huge trigger warnings for violence including against woman and children, child prostitution, sexual assault and more, so not a read for some of you. What raise this intense read above most of her (good) work, is the mystery content as the burglar's (Rasta) dad is consumed with trying to find out why his (estranged) son was doing armed in a multi-million pound mansion. Scorcher! 8.5 out of 12 As you can tell from my 3 stars, I wasn't that impressed. It wasn't the story itself that I didn't enjoy, although it did seem to end rather abruptly (and without the twist I was hoping for), it was the sheer amount of padding in the novel. The novel follows the progression of Danny Boy's career from child 'hero' to feared 'Face' and it highlights how arrogance and over-confidence can certainly become your downfall, no matter how scary you are. This is the first book by Martina Cole, I enjoyed her writing in the novel, it was a book that I could not put down,