I couldn't put this down ! (The Ladykiller - Martina Cole)

Member Name: mad lady

Product:	The Ladykiller - Martina Cole
Date:	26/06/07 (268 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: An excellent read

Disadvantages: I read this everywhere I could

Martina Cole is an extremely successful author, she has written eleven number one best sellers.

The book starts with the first character we get to know, he is George, George Markham, he appears to be hen pecked and very placid, his wife nags the life out of him, and he seems to plod along in life, and accepts that his marriage is stale if not completely dead. As the book continues you begin to understand that this is not just everyday nagging, but total disrespect and cruelty.
But henpecked George is not all he seems, he has a darker side, and without giving too much away he has an extremely sinister, terrifiying side to him.
Throughout the book we go back to George's childhood and start to understand how he became the man he is today.

Patrick Kelly is a hard man, is both feared and respected by the criminal world and the most senior in the police force. Patrick is a very wealthy and successful man. He has one soft spot, his daughter Mandy.

We are then taken through a page turning chain of events that leads Mandy to being brutally raped and murdered by a man nickenamed the Grantley ripper.

Kate Burrows is the DI that is in charge of the case, she is a very strong character, she has struggled with personal issues, such as being a single mother, we learn about her relationships with her daughter and her mother, and the fact that she would never have had her career without her mothers help. We start to understand that her relationship with her daughter has suffered due to her commitment to her career, does Kate really know her daughter. The love for the teenager is really tested at times. Kate begins by watching Patrick Kelly really struggling to comes to terms with the brutal murder of his beloved daughter. Her empathy slowly changes into understanding and respect, for a man that is feared by many. Her growing relationship with Kelly is extremely dangerous for her career. Kelly has made it clear that he want revenge, with or without the police.

As the story continues we see a softer side to Patrick and can understand why Kate could fall for him, risking everything. We learn about the violence that Patrick is capable of, in the desperate hunt to find his daughters murderer and police corruption that Kate didn't know exsisted.

As you turn the pages of this fantastic book you are taken through a race against time between the police and London's criminal underworld. Who will find him first? and what complications will there be for Kate and her family, could her career really be at stake? How many young women will the Grantley ripper kill before he is caught, what affect will this have on his unsuspecting family, or are they really unsuspecting?

You really can't work out who will make the right connections first, then you think they have and its missed! Where is Patrick Kelly getting his information from ?

This book was a great 629 pages long . I couldn't put it down. Its extremely violent and very graffic in parts. As with all Martina Cole books this is not for the fainthearted. An excellent read.

Summary: 100% recommended