FEMME FATALE (Dangerous Lady - Martina Cole)

Member Name: Fantasybeliever

Product:	Dangerous Lady - Martina Cole
Date:	12/02/06 (171 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: An epic tale, a good long, holiday or commuting read, compelling, good example of a first novel

Disadvantages: Too many characters, sub plots are sometimes not that well defined, weakish predictable conclusion

INTRODUCTION

Though I haven’t written a review for a while, those of you that recognise me will know that I’m a big fan of Martina Cole. A few months ago I moved from London to Peterborough and was delighted to find that a first rate, well stocked library was located just a couple of minutes walk from my flat! During my daily commute I have the opportunity to do lots of reading but this is the first time in months that I’ve been motivated enough to produce a review.

I’ve just finished reading Martina Cole’s first novel – Dangerous Lady – a reasonable, if somewhat epic effort for a first novel. With hindsight, I’d quite like to see Cole go back to the formula of some of her earlier works as they tend to be less raw and violent than some of her later efforts. I definitely feel that this is a more “mature” effort than some of her other works.

THE STORY

The Ryan’s are a dirt poor, typical post war West End London family. Benjamin Ryan is a lazy, hard drinking wide boy who spends all his time in the pub and no time providing for his large family. Sarah Benjamin is introduced as she is giving birth to her ninth child and her first girl – Maura. The birth is described in the context of all of her other children milling about the house hungry because Benjamin hasn’t been home for days to provide any money for food and with cockroaches crawling up the walls, being trampled underfoot and even venturing across the children’s faces.

It’s hardly surprising that the children aspire for something more, something better and that the eldest son takes on the role of provider from an early age to compensate for his father’s disinterest and inability to support his huge family. Less surprising still, is that the boy (Michael) does this by turning to a life of petty crime, stealing food and looting bombed houses in order to put food on the table.

His handsome features, pretty boy looks and the realisation that he is homosexual endear him to the local west London gangland boss Joe the Fish. Michael manipulates and uses the situation to his own advantage to wheedle his way into favour and win Joe’s trust to the extent that he hands over the entire running of the “firm”. Once, achieved Michael systematically goes about plotting the old man’s demise and, of course, succeeds. Upon succession, Michael involves every one of his seven brothers and builds up a criminal firm that takes over the whole of London and makes the reign of the Krays seem mild!

Meanwhile, Maura’s childhood is an environment of her mother’s and brother’s overt protection, yet also as part of this incredibly dangerous criminal world. This includes the violent and traumatic deaths of a couple of her brother’s due to their involvement in the “firm”.

Eventually, Maura grows up and falls in love at 17, only to discover she is pregnant. Horrifyingly she has fallen in love with a “filth” – a police man. Her innocence sees her going to tell her lover but when she arrives he ends their relationship. Unbeknown to her he has discovered she is a “Ryan” and has to make a decision between his lover and his career; his career wins.

Subsequent events lead to the story that is Maura Ryan, a story of deep sadness and a life of loneliness and unhappiness. Maura joins the “firm” and eventually runs it hand in hand with Michael becoming a woman whose name soon becomes synonymous with hard crime and gratuitous violence. She is now a very Dangerous Lady. To say any more would be to give the plot away – if you’re tempted, read it, I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.

CHARACTERISATION

This has become one of Martina Cole’s strengths in her subsequent books. I suspect that because I haven’t read her novels in order that it surprised me that there were subtle flaws in the characters in this book and they were occasionally less than believable. However, the way in which she develops her characters does draw you in and you either find that you have a level of empathy with the character and take an instant liking to them – and sometimes even a loathing!

Her strong “suit” is headstrong, independent, wilful women and on this level, and this level only, her writing could be considered formulaic in that it is similar to her other works. The development of the main character Maura is interesting in that it starts from birth and tells you of this beautiful, innocent, loving child. However, after a life changing and life threatening event relating to her pregnancy at 17, Maura turns into an almost unbelievably different character. I guess that sometimes life’s events can change our basic character and that things that do happen can turn us into bitter, twisted and unhappy people. I suspect this is what Cole was trying to achieve here but doesn’t always succeed. The impression I was given at times was that Maura was almost psychotic; one moment she would be this kind, caring, generous person looking after women down on their luck and yet the next she would be capable of participating in sickeningly violent scenes.

One of the down sides of some Cole stories is that men are portrayed as violent, wicked, evil people. Whilst there is plenty of this in abundance, the author goes to great lengths to show Michael, the oldest brother and the criminal mastermind, as a loving sibling to his sister and someone that truly adores her. This is done quite intelligently as she managers to do this at the same time as demonstrating the seedier side of his life and his naturally sadistic character.

There are many other “characters” in this book - if anything, too many. There’s Maura’s best friend Margaret, the seven other Ryan brothers, their partners and sometimes their children, not to mention the other “criminals” and the entire London Police Force. It isn’t actually that difficult to keep track of them all but the number of characters weakens the way in which they are portrayed sometimes.

THE FLAWS

The biggest flaw in this book is simply the number of characters it tries to develop. The underlying sub plots lose strength and focus due to this and also probably due to the fact that the main plot and the story itself spans over 40 years. It’s hard to tell one person’s life story in 560 pages, never mind the history of an entire family – in my humble opinion.

A sub-plot that saw the development of Maura’s love life in tandem with the development of her career in the criminal underworld was somewhat weak and I believe that further development of this aspect would have made the story more interesting and exciting.

My final negative is the same with any Martina Cole book I’ve read and that is that the ending is too neat and tidy. All loose ends are tied up, and there is very little left to the imagination. In this instance, it was also entirely predictable. However, at least this neat and tidy ending did leave the door open for a sequel, something that her other efforts don’t appear to achieve.

CONCLUSION

Although not my favourite Martina Cole novel to date I certainly enjoyed it. Even though the story, as always, relates to London gangland culture the levels of violence and corruption are really no less than her other stories. However, I was thankful that the descriptions were not quite as graphic as some I’ve encountered in her other books. But it does still exist in abundance and I suspect our own imaginations make the scenes as graphic as we want them to be. Personally, I prefer it this way.

The story flows reasonably well, and I really found myself wanting to know what happened next, and did find myself reading this at every possible opportunity. I’d like to see her go back to her roots a little and write in this way; I feel that the author has resorted to “shock” tactics in some of her latter efforts and although it wouldn’t stop me from reading them, I know that she can write in a different way and one that still engages the reader.

Due to the level of knowledge about the shady world of which she writes, I often wonder where she draws her experiences from! However, it is this same knowledge that makes these stories so intriguing and believable and so perhaps its better not to question?

Cole novel’s are not for the faint hearted but if you enjoy the thriller/mystery genre, you could do a lot worse than pick up one of her novels. Like me, you’ll probably find it enjoyable.

563 pages
Published by headline
Available in paperback, published by headline for £6.99

Cheers

© Christina ;-) x

Summary: Epic story, good read, overall strengths outweigh weaknesses