8 Best Martina Cole Books
The best Martina Cole books, ranked by how many expert sources recommend each one, with notes on who each suits, from gangland-saga fans to crime readers.
Our take
Martina Cole’s crime fiction places family loyalties, money, and power inside harsh criminal worlds. Her stories often focus on women navigating violence and on the damage that ambition or silence can do within a household. Expect direct language, large emotional stakes, and disturbing material rather than the reassurance of a tidy puzzle mystery.
Dangerous Lady introduces Maura Ryan and offers a broad route into Cole’s gangland fiction. The Ladykiller begins the DI Kate Burrows series and combines a police investigation with criminal connections. Most of the other choices here work as standalones: The Take and No Mercy emphasize family power, while Faceless centers a woman rebuilding her life after prison. The Know turns on a missing child, and Two Women gives imprisonment and survival particular weight. Start with Dangerous Lady for the family-saga approach, or The Ladykiller if you prefer an investigator to follow. Choose with the book’s specific subject matter in mind.
8 books · 3 sources · Last updated
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How to choose from this list
Skip to the full rankingIf you're new to her gangland fiction: Dangerous Lady
If you want a recurring police lead: The Ladykiller
If you want a standalone family power struggle: The Take → No Mercy
If you prefer a personal mystery after prison: Faceless
If you want a missing-person story: The Know
If you want women’s experiences of imprisonment: Two Women
The 8 books, ranked
Ranked by how many expert sources name each book. Ties go to the book more people recommend.
For readers who want an introduction to Cole’s gangland families and formidable women. Maura’s place within a criminal dynasty gives the story a broad social canvas, but the violence, length, and family detail make it a substantial commitment.
What it's about
On post-war Lancaster Road, the Irish Ryan family live on the edge of crime while their clever daughter Maura is told to stay in the background. As her brother Michael builds a gangland empire, Maura steps up as his most ruthless ally and draws the full attention of the police.
Faceless
For readers drawn to prison’s aftermath, uncertain memories, and a protagonist trying to reclaim her life. Its personal mystery gives the crime plot a strong focus, but the hostile relationships and bleak atmosphere offer little relief.
What it's about
Marie Carter has spent more than ten years in prison for killing her two best friends, a crime she can barely remember. On release she finds herself shunned by her family and watched by a hostile stranger, and slowly realises that the truth about that night is not what she was told.
No Mercy
For readers who enjoy a family crime business examined through competing generations. Diana’s authority gives the gangland conflict a clear center, but the brutality and familiar patterns of ambition and betrayal may feel repetitive to longtime Cole readers.
What it's about
Since her bank-robber husband's death, Diana Davis has run the family firm with a cool head and an iron will. Her son Angus is desperate to prove himself on the Costa, but his brutal ambition and blind spots at home threaten to destroy everything Diana has fought to protect.
The Know
For readers who want a crime story driven by a mother’s determination and a community’s silence. Its close attention to grief gives the search emotional force, but harm involving a child makes this one of the harsher choices here.
What it's about
For Joanie Brewer, her kids are everything, even if life on a tough estate has already pulled her son into crime. When her youngest daughter Kira disappears, Joanie's grief hardens into a need for answers, and in a community built on silence she must decide how far she will go for the truth.
For readers who want a police investigation alongside Cole’s criminal-world perspective. Kate Burrows provides a recurring lead and a clear series entry point, but the serial-killer violence and sexual threat make it an especially disturbing read.
What it's about
A sadistic predator known as the Grantley Ripper is stalking women and hiding in plain sight. DI Kate Burrows leads the hunt, but when the killer strikes at gangster Patrick Kelly's family, she is pulled into a dangerous alliance that could cost her career and her life.
The Runaway
For readers who want a long crime saga built around a relationship shaped by a violent upbringing. The movement across years and settings gives the story scope, but the abuse and repeated suffering make it emotionally heavy.
What it's about
Cathy Connor and Eamonn Docherty grow up clinging to each other in London's East End, both desperate to escape violence at home. Torn apart as teenagers, they are dragged into the worlds of Soho vice and international crime, and years later their reunion will be anything but simple.
The Take
For readers who enjoy criminal ambition explored through an extended family’s loyalties and rivalries. Its domestic consequences give the gangland power struggle weight, but the volatile characters and sustained cruelty make sympathy difficult at times.
What it's about
Fresh out of prison, Freddie Jackson is hungry for the money, women and respect he thinks the world owes him. As his volatility collides with his cousin Jimmy's quieter ambition, their wives and families are pulled into a dangerous feud where loyalty means very little and everyone has a price.
Two Women
For readers interested in women’s lives shaped by abuse, imprisonment, and survival. The prison relationship gives the novel a different focus from Cole’s family empires, but its sustained violence and emotional intensity make it a demanding choice.
What it's about
Sue Dalston has known nothing but violence, until one desperate swing of a spanner kills her abusive husband and sends her to prison for life. Inside, she shares a cell with notorious murderess Matilda Enderby, and the bond between them reveals just how far people can be pushed before they break.
Sources
Edited by
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