Longlisted for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2010.

Martina Cole was shortlisted for the Specsavers ITV3 Crime Thriller Bestseller Dagger 2009.

Tough women in the tough world of London’s East End gangland dominate Martina Cole’s many novels, this is her fifteenth.  What she has done is to create a human side to a gritty, violent world of powerful people disregarding the law.  In doing so the villains and their families, sweethearts, rivals, victims and underlings become people we either love or hate.  This, not her best, features some very nasty characters.

Comparison: Mandasue Heller, June Hampson, Jane Elliot.

Synopsis

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. 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.

Reviews

About the Author

Martina Cole is the No. 1 bestselling author of sixteen hugely successful novels. Hard Girls went straight to No. 1 on the Sunday Times hardback bestseller list. The Business was the No. 1 bestselling hardback adult fiction title of 2008 and was a No. 1 Sunday Times hardback bestseller, along with Faces, Close and The Take. The Take also won the British Book Award for Crime Thriller of the Year and has been adapted for Sky One - with remarkable reviews - and The Runaway is currently in production. The Know was selected by Richard & Judy as one of the Top Ten Best Reads of 2003. Maura's Game, Faceless and The Graft also shot straight to No. 1 on the Sunday Times bestseller lists, and total sales of Martina's novels are now at ten million copies. Martina Cole has a son and daughter and lives in Kent. Martina Cole is highly acclaimed for her hard-hitting, uncompromising and haunting writing, as well as for her incredible success. Photograph © Geoff Howe More books by this author Author 'Like for Like' recommendation