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Set in the East End of London from the tail-end of the seventies up until the present-day, THE BUSINESS is a tale of drugs, prostitution and a young girl s fight for survival against all the odds.
Love your family. Hate your enemies. Know the Business.
Imelda Dooley is scared. She s played hard and fast and now she s been caught. She s pregnant and now she s on her own. Her father, not a man to mess with, will see that somebody pays for this. And it s not going to be her. So Imelda Dooley tells a lie. A lie that literally causes murders.
When Mary Dooley s husband is killed in the night s events, she knows she must graft to keep the family afloat. And graft she does, becoming a name in her own right. But she still has to watch her daughter s life spiral into a vicious, hate-fuelled cycle of drugs and prostitution.
Caught up in the carnage that is Imelda s existence are Mary s adored grandchildren, Jordanna and Kenny. Pretty little Jordanna isn t yet three and she already knows far too much. All she can do is look after her baby brother and try not to draw attention to herself.
Cole is brilliant at portraying the good among the bad, and vice versa, so until the very end we never quite know who to trust. This is the very stuff that makes her so compelling - Daily Mirror
No one writes about East End women and their vagaries like Martina Cole - Maxim Jakubowski, Murder One
'A powerful novel that pulls no punches... Cole has an ear for the vernacular of the East End, as well as an ability to portray the viciousness of life at the edge' the Guide - Guide
Right from the start [Cole] has enjoyed unqualified approval for her distinctive and powerfully written fiction - The Times
Intensely readable - Guardian
Martina Cole explores the shady criminal underworld, a setting she is fast making her own - Sunday Express
Utterly compelling - Mirror
The story will grip you from the first pages - Best
Martina Cole's first novel Dangerous Lady caused a sensation when it was published, and launched one of the bestselling fiction writers of her generation.
Martina has since gone on to have seventeen No. 1 bestsellers. She won the British Book Award for Crime Thriller of the Year with The Take, which then went on to be a hit TV series for Sky 1.
Four of her novels have made it on the screen, with more in production, and three have been adapted as stage plays.
Her unique, powerful storytelling is acclaimed for its hard-hitting, true-to-life style - there is no one like Martina Cole.