Martina Cole Books in Order

In 1960s Soho, sixteen-year-old Maggie Riley works in a laundry, handing her wages to the violent father who rules her life. When local villain Rory Sheehan decides Maggie will be his, a desperate choice traps her in a brutal marriage and pushes her towards a reckoning she refuses to regret.

Dara Tailor spends her childhood caring for seven younger siblings while her mother disappears into cocaine and chaos. In care she meets Grace Perry, and the abuse they endure at Holly Brookes Children's Home forges a bond that will be tested years later when the past comes roaring back.

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.

When the bodies of missing schoolgirls begin to surface, former DCI Kate Burrows is dragged out of retirement to help hunt another killer in Grantley. Working with DCI Annie Carr while trouble erupts at home with partner Patrick Kelly and his long-lost son, Kate must stop a predator before more girls vanish.

Aiden O'Hara has led his family since boyhood, mixing charm and brutality to reach the top. His partner Jade Dixon has been in the game longer than he has, but as resentments build inside their circle, both of them must face the most dangerous kind of betrayal: the kind that comes from home.

Sharon Conway and Lenny Scott grow up as tough kids who believe their love can survive anything, especially Lenny's rise through the criminal ranks. When Lenny is found beaten to death and no one will tell Sharon why, she spends years living with lies until the chance comes to settle old scores.

Gangster Cain Moran falls hard for Jenny Riley, but he already has a wife who refuses to let him go. When Cain ends up with a long prison sentence, he fights to protect Jenny from behind bars, and both of them learn how high the price of their good life might be.

The Knowledge gathers short pieces about Martina Cole's life and offers tasters from across her novels. New readers can sample her favourite themes and characters in one place, while long-time fans get extra background and behind-the-scenes glimpses.

Mentored by legendary Face Patrick Costello, Michael Flynn rises from hungry young thug to boss of a vast criminal empire. He thinks he is untouchable, but power breeds enemies, and somewhere someone is quietly planning the moment when Michael will finally pay for everything he has done.

Brothers Peter and Daniel Bailey are complete opposites, but together they build a fearsome East End crime dynasty. Their children are born into the Life whether they like it or not, and when tragedy pulls daughter Tania into the heart of the business, she must decide what kind of future she wants.

To neighbours, Cynthia Tailor seems to have it all: a solid marriage, a smart house and two beautiful children. Behind closed doors she is cold, grasping and endlessly disloyal, and the damage she inflicts on her husband, her sister and her kids will eventually come back to claim a price.

Phillip Murphy is a loving husband and father and also the ruthless head of a powerful criminal clan. As he grooms his sons to inherit the empire, his wife Christine begins to see how far he will go to protect what is his and what it might cost their children.

A lie told by frightened, pregnant teenager Imelda Dooley sparks a night of violence that changes her family forever. As her mother Mary claws out a living in the criminal world and Imelda descends into addiction and prostitution, the next generation grows up under a legacy soaked in blood.

When the mutilated body of a young prostitute is found in Grantley, DCI Annie Carr knows she is facing a killer unlike any she has seen before. She turns to retired DCI Kate Burrows for help, and together they fight to bring justice to victims the world prefers not to see.

Abandoned by his father just before his fourteenth birthday, Danny Cadogan vows that no one will ever hurt his family again. He becomes one of the Faces of London gangland, feared on the streets and feared at home, but the secrets inside his own household may prove his downfall.

Patrick Brodie claws his way up from nothing to become a feared London kingpin, wrapping his family in luxury paid for with blood money. When violence finally crashes through their front door, his wife Lily must fight to keep the Brodies alive and discover which enemies came from inside the circle.

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.

Nick Leary has the perfect life on paper: a thriving business in Essex, a beautiful wife and two young sons. One night an intruder shatters that calm, and Nick's violent response exposes the criminal graft hidden beneath his respectable image, dragging his family into a spiral of revenge.

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.

Years after becoming queen of the London underworld, Maura Ryan has walked away from crime to build a quieter life with the man she loves. When new gangs move onto her old territory and threaten the people closest to her, Maura is forced back into the game to remind everyone who she is.

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.

Children in Grantley are disappearing, returning home traumatised and unable or unwilling to explain what happened to them. When one child is murdered, DI Kate Burrows faces a case that shatters the community and forces her to confront the darkest kind of predator while her personal life strains under the pressure.

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.

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.

Donna Brunos idolises her husband Georgio, so when he is jailed for armed robbery she refuses to believe he is guilty. Drawn into a risky plan to break him out, she enters a brutal world of corrupt guards and lifers where one mistake could destroy both of them.

Raised in poverty and betrayal, Briony Cavanagh claws her way up to run some of London's most notorious brothels. She trades in secrets and loyalty, but the enemies she makes on the way up and the ghosts of her past are waiting for their chance to bring her down.

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.

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.