I am in agreement with some other reviewers on here. How anyone can read this book and give it 5 stars is beyond me. I like a good thriller/crime story and this is none of the above. I loved Cole's earlier books, particularly Burrows and the whole taboo of a copper hooking up with a criminal. Now Burrows is out of the police business and Pat is mostly retired things are going well when Pat has a chap claiming to be his son. Pat is shrewd and suspicious of course but the idea of a family brings it's own happiness and problems. But they have no real leads ... and there's more to these murders than meets the eye. Can Kate take the killer down before another schoolgirl dies?

Loyalty by Martina Cole | Waterstones

With the return of some of her best-loved characters and lashings of her usual grit, Cole fans will lap this up' Heat

To celebrate the release of this latest thriller, the best-selling author has shared a gripping exclusive extract with Mirror readers. There isn't any investigation ( The crime is solved by someone spilling the beans ) . Just side stories that are repetitive. The glorification of a gangster. A predictive plot. Too much drinking and lots of swearing. This is the first novel I have read from Martina cole and I have been looking forward to getting round to her! .. The story itself was really good! I loved the plot, I loved that it was a detective Nov because they are my go to reads,. I loved that i had no idea who the serial killer was throughout. Which I why I gave it 4 stars!! This is just on the verge of being unreadable. While the start was promising, it all just devolves into a repetitive and predictable tract. Who the killer is hardly a mystery...they are the only suspect. However, I found that it was very repetitive, I found that I was reading the same lines over and over, which is why I didn't give it 5.

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

Martina Cole is to stage a special 'evening with' event on October 2 to celebrate the release of her new book ' No Mercy'. officialmartinacole - I want the next one, as soon as humanly possible please!! ...And don't even think about changing narrators!!! When the bodies of missing schoolgirls start turning up, former DCI Kate Burrows is dragged out of retirement.Not sure what anyone else has been reading, but there was no suspense, no drama, and anyone should be able to work out who the perpetrator is by about half way through the book. I feel annoyed that I wasted my time and money on this apology for crime fiction. Oh the temptation of the station bookshop with a long train journey ahead.

Mercy: The heart-stopping novel from the Queen of Crime No Mercy: The heart-stopping novel from the Queen of Crime

But please be advised, the following extract contains strong language which may cause offence and is not suitable for children.This book was extremely poor in many respects. The writing was very repetitive, and not in an effectual way. I didn't know how many times someone could 'sigh ruefully' in one short piece of dialogue. I finished the book because I really thought it must lead to something, the intensity and specificity of hatred that the killer had for young girls due to their sexuality was really strong, I thought this must be explained in the end by some facts about the killers life, past or psychopathology. But we never even get that, spoiler alert, in the end we do not get the typical mad speech of the villain who has finally been caught explaining himself, instead in a cop-out the killer has killed himself before questioning. This leaves me to believe that the misogyny expressed by the killer is in fact the opinions of the author. Which leads me to the bigger problem with this book, which goes beyond the writing and story construction. Many of Martina’s crime novels have gone on to have high-profile TV adaptations, and she’s won countless awards for her writing.

All the latest from the queen of crime - Martina Cole

I hate to say this but I didn't love this book like normal. I'm gutted to not enjoy it as much because I love Martina, but something just didn't work for me here. I liked the characters and I thought the plot was interesting but in my opinion, there was a spark missing. The actual reveal is comical beyond belief and it simply felt as though Martina had run out of any ideas on how to actually finish the book. Joseph/Bella and Christina – I am not going to say too much about these except I found Joseph to be a bit weak in his inability to be a man and make a choice. Bella is one crazy b*tch! Loved how that storyline panned out! 😱 and poor Christine – right place, wrong time in life….that is all I am going to say about that! The side plot is as uninspired as it is meaningless. It's obvious who the author wants you to feel sorry for in the affair...but, I'm not buying it. It just comes across like misandry dressed up as drama. Wow! The killer is one messed up mofo! Nothing will sway the killer’s view that what they do is for all the right reasons- everyone else’s fault – the victim’s are “asking for it” SCARY!!This brings me on to my final point. The misogyny. This book is rife with it. Women in this book are only written as respectable on the condition that they do not wear makeup, are not sexually active beyond a rigid set of perimeters, and definitely do not have a facebook account. The vast majority of young women in this book are slated as disgusting wrongdoers who have made a huge mistake that will tarnish their name for the rest of their lives if, god forbid, they have consensual sexual involvement with a boy of the same age. The protagonist is disgusted with these girls' application of makeup as if these two are even correlated? It makes no sense what is inferred from these and related aspects in the girls lives, the views (along with the language) were archaic and did not fit; useless in the present day and the present book. THE KNOWLEDGE by Sunday Times bestselling author Martina Cole is a digital compendium introducing you to the world of the Queen of Crime. **Now updated with a preview of Martina's new novel, BETRAYAL**. Ideal reading for fans of Karin Slaughter and Patricia Cornwell. Wow. I live in a world where people read this, and then give it 5 stars. We're all doomed I tell you. Doomed !