Martina Cole

[Thurlow]

Oh my god.

I wasn't expecting Pulitzer Prize winning writing. I thought it would be some decent, pacy trash to keep me going on my commute. I mean, she sells so many books. I can happily read trash. I'm not picky.

They are awful. And I mean awful. Every character is the same, no one has a distinct personality, the plot is predictable, the murders are somehow gratiutious (and this from someone who loves Mo Hayder) but worst of all, she actually can't write. I mean, she uses exclamation marks, and not in dialogue, ffs.

AIBU? Am I missing something? Honestly, I think this book (The Ladykiller) is the biggest pile of shite I've read in ages. I've read better written free Mills & Boon...

She's bloody awful. What annoys me most though is the way she gets slang wrong. Particularly "sobs" as in "you owe me twenty sobs". Its fucking SOVS you pseudo Molly halfwit. Short for Sovereigns.

Can't read her books - they make my teeth itch!

'A belly full of arms and legs' must be her favourite phrase considering it features in every book i've read of hers

The TV version of The Take was ok but anything with Tom Hardy in it is worth watching!

Tulisa is a big fan.

Good for her for finding an untapped market but I've never felt the urge to read any of her books.

What does a 'belly full of arms and legs' mean?

I find with hers once you've read one you might as well have read them all.
I like to play Martina cole bingo.
Bellyful of arms and legs
The son of someone really vicious is a paedophile
A mother is harder than she looks
A policeman turns a blind eye to something.

Etc etc.

The violence against women is horrific as well.

Lol @ a belly full of arms and legs. I find them a bit pervyish but addictive like cheap booze.

I love all her books im a big fan and a lot of people i know read and enjoy her books but i suppose its not for everyone

Pregnant Squoosh. Charming expression isn't it.

Oh I see. Yuck, sounds like a sack full of kittens.

She's proper East End isn't she? She sounds like Barry White, if Barry was a woman, and came from the East End, and smoked 50 Mayfair a day.

The Ladykiller was her best book IMO, I like her but they have become very samey.

See, I've heard other people say The Ladykiller is her best book but that's the one I'm reading! The concept of the plot is fine. I like it when you're inside the killer's head too, it's a good change. Plotwise it's not terrible, there are good ideas there. But it's just so poorly written

I've just got to a bit where a kid has been killed. I'm not happy.

Holsten I'm the same. I wander round the library looking for something different, but they either don't have it, or I can't find it and I go back to trash!

I went through a stage of reading her books. They are very samey. 'Split arse' is another term that crops up in most of them. A lovely term for a baby girl

Ye, they are much of a muchness. I read them when Dts were newborns and I was camped out on the sofa feeding them all day. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.
The first one was ok, I think it was The Take, but every story is the same as pp have said.

Oh don't get me started - absolutely awful and if she sends one more person to the "Billericay Burns Unit" I'm going to write to her and tell her it CLOSED IN 1998 - DO YOUR RESEARCH!!

Oh yes and The lovely Thom Hardy was brilliant in the tv adaptation.

"Legion".

Tom Hardy in The Take was MAGNIFICENT!

Yeah, I enjoyed The Take so I thought I was going to be on a winner with the MC's - long commute, I need something new to get into. What am I going to read now?!

I hate how she has characters talking in rhyming slang when there is no need to, when no actual person would talk like that. So irritating.

I'd avoid reading "Broken" like the plague. I bought it as it had some of the same characters as Ladykiller, but I found it very upsetting, which is saying a lot for me as I generally like gritty books. There was far too much detail about child sexual abuse, I couldn't bear to finish it.

I read one once. How on earth did she ever get piblished??
And speaking of shite. Has anyone ever read any Susan Lewis. Had two on my kindle of ages, so thought i'd give them a go. Bad, bad move. Good job both cost me less than a a fiver to download!

I have found Martina Cole transfers better to screen, which is unusual as I am one of those people who generally pulls TV adaptations to pieces.

I think she had a couple of pretty good books (Dangerous Lady, The Lady Killer), found she was on to a winning formula and has religiously stuck to that template, phrases and all.

I read one once. How on earth did she ever get piblished??
And speaking of shite. Has anyone ever read any Susan Lewis. Had two on my kindle of ages, so thought i'd give them a go. Bad, bad move. Good job both cost me less than a a fiver to download!

Whoops, sorry dont know how that happened.

She's not proper East End at all I don't think. I worked in a pub in South Essex years ago and she lived just up the road. Then she had her first book published and moved.