Close and over 1.5 million other books are available for Amazon Kindle . Learn more


or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
More Buying Choices
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Sorry, this item is not available in
Image not available for
Colour:
Image not available

 
Share your own customer images
Search inside this book
Start reading Close on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

Close [Paperback]

Martina Cole (Author)
2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (72 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
Price: £5.05 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £2.94 (37%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
Only 10 left in stock (more on the way).
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon. Gift-wrap available.
Want it Thursday, 20 June? Choose Express delivery at checkout. Details

Formats

 Amazon Price New from Used from
Kindle Edition £4.85   -- --
Hardcover --   -- --
Paperback £5.05   -- --
Audio, CD, Audiobook £16.00   -- --
Unknown Binding --   -- --
Audio Download, Unabridged £11.99 or Free with Audible.co.uk 30-day free trial
Books Trade-In
Amazon.co.uk Trade-In Store
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. Special Offer until June 30, 2013: Receive an additional £5 promotional Gift Certificate, when you trade-in at least £10 worth of books. Learn more.

Book Description

Publication Date: 11 Nov 2010
A novel from the bestselling Martina Cole that is powerful, shocking and utterly addictive.

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. And your family should be closest of all.

Patrick Brodie knows exactly how far he's prepared to go to get what he wants. And he wants it all.  Now.  Before long, Patrick has become a legend in his own lifetime.  Violently. 

Lily Diamond is different from the kind of woman Patrick is normally attracted to.  But together they are determined that their children will have everything they didn't.  Until the unthinkable happens and Lily is left on her own to look after their family in a dangerous world.  The Brodies must stay close to survive.  But as everyone knows, your sins will find you out.

Frequently Bought Together

Close + Faces + The Business
Price For All Three: £14.97

Buy the selected items together
  • Faces by Martina Cole Paperback £4.70
  • The Business by Martina Cole Paperback £5.22

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Product details

  • Paperback: 656 pages
  • Publisher: Headline (11 Nov 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0755374142
  • ISBN-13: 978-0755374144
  • Product Dimensions: 12.9 x 19.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (72 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 32,919 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

More About the Author

› Visit Amazon's Martina Cole Page
Martina Cole
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.

Product Description

Review

'Cole is brilliant at portraying the good among the bad, and vice versa, so until the very end we never quite know who to trust. This is the very stuff that makes her so compelling'

(Daily Mirror)

'No one writes about East End women and their vagaries like Martina Cole' (Maxim Jakubowski, Murder One 2002-03-29)

'A powerful novel that pulls no punches... Cole has an ear for the vernacular of the East End, as well as an ability to portray the viciousness of life at the edge' the Guide ( Guide 2002-03-29)

'Right from the start [Cole] has enjoyed unqualified approval for her distinctive and powerfully written fiction'

(The Times 2002-03-29)

'Intensely readable' (Guardian 2002-03-29)

'Martina Cole explores the shady criminal underworld, a setting she is fast making her own'

( Sunday Express 2002-03-29)

'Utterly compelling'

( Mirror 2002-03-29)

'The story will grip you from the first pages'

( Best 2002-03-29)

'Gritty novel from an author who knows intimately the world she writes about'

( Express 2002-03-29)

Book Description

Highly acclaimed for her hard-hitting, uncompromising and compelling writing, as well as her phenomenal Number 1 success, Martina Cole is the only author who dares to tell it like it is. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
See all Product Description
Inside This Book (Learn More)
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Search inside this book:

What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?

› Explore similar items

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars The Close 2 Feb 2007
By Mrs. Vivien F. Brace
Format:Hardcover
I am such an ardent fan/reader of Martina Cole, every one of her books has been in my hands since her very first, I cannot wait for her new books to be finished and I count off the days till the new one hits the shelves. But who wrote "The Close" was it a Martina Cole clone, it was such a dissapointment almost a repeat from all her previous books. The same lines and events were repeated over and over again (from previous stories). Some of the language had absolutely no representation to the story it seemed just for effect at times and the violence will give some very good ideas to some nasty people. The story had no substance it just seemed to go on and on with words to fill pages. So many authors in the past have written books on their names "too big or their boots" comes to mind. Please, please Martina you have so much talent don't let this happen with you. You can write white knuckle, gripping, fantastic books that we are all unable to put down (unlike this one which sent me to sleep after one page)so please don't let "Gangland" rule you so much - you are worth so much more that that. "Two Women" was the best I have ever read but Close was like walking through mud. Get back to your roots girl "PLEASE" otherwise Mandasue Heller will be taking your place.
1 Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
No
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Not her best work 9 July 2007
By O. Doyle
Format:Paperback
I was lucky enough to start my Martina Cole reading with such great books as The Know, Ladykiller, The Take & Broken. Whereas those were page-turning, all-action books Ms Coles last two installments (The Graft & Close) were quite disappointing and both were disappointing for the same reason. While both had the usual formula of hard men, tragedy and retribution I feel that Cole spent way too much time focusing on the thoughts and feelings of every character and not enough time on developing the story and moving it along. Quite a big chunk of the pages could have been omitted and nobody would have noticed. The story was there, the characters were there.....I just feel the final product was lacking. Having said that I did enjoy seeing how the lives of the characters changed over the years. But there just wasn't any depth to the story really. The Lance issue was as plain as the nose on your face so couldn't even been classed as a twist yet it went on and on and on. There was definitely some serious repetition and that in itself was driving me insane. But it was worth a read.....I just wouldn't recommend it as a must read.
3 Comments | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
No
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars Close 6 Aug 2007
By Sunnie Gill
Format:Paperback
Meet Lily. Lily is the wife of London gangster Patrick Brodie, and the mother of a tribe of children fathered by several men.
CLOSE follows the story of two generations of the family living in the violent gangland world of London from the 1960s through to the nineties.

CLOSE follows the fortunes of the family by chronicling Lil's life. Born into a poor household with indifferent and sometimes neglectful parents, Lil meets Patrick at the age of fifteen and is married to him by sixteen. Lil's status rises with Patrick's success in the underworld and falls again upon his murder at the hands of rivals.

This is a case where the author would have been well served by using the "less is more" philosophy. For example, three pages are devoted to Patrick's infidelities, when he's unfaithful, his attitude towards the women, how his wife feels about him cheating. It's just too much. One paragraph would have been sufficient. Another instance is the murder of Patrick on his son's birthday. Men rush into the house and repeatedly stab and beat him to death in front of his wife and children. The author relates this event, and then proceeds to retell it from the point of view of several people present. The problem with this is that she is merely restating the same thing with slightly different wording. The reader is offered no new insights into the event. Handled differently, it could have been a brutally stunning passage. However any impact the violence might have had is dulled by this heavy handed overkill.

Author Martina Cole seems to know about the sub-culture of which she writes, and the story could give the reader a real glimpse into this culture of crime.... Read more ›
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
No
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars Atrocious 12 Mar 2007
By Roger Rabbit
Format:Hardcover
I was a huge fan of Martina Cole, but am totally disappointed by this book. If I hadn't know better I would have thought it was written by someone else. There is so much unneccessary text and repetition that the book could have easily been told in half as many pages. Cole should work on the basis that if you haven't got anything good to write about - don't write anything. Then fans won't be disappointed.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
No
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars FLATLINED WHILE READING "CLOSE" 4 Sep 2007
By Da Readah
Format:Paperback
First and last book of Martina Cole's to land in my reading pile. Boring, tedious, I forced myself through it to page 121, somewhere near the top and mid-sentence, when I could not justify wasting my life on it any longer. Flat characters, grey imagery, poorly written - I flatlined while reading it.

I've kept or given to libraries nearly every book I've ever read (shelves and shelves of them). "Close", however, was that rare bad choice of book that ended in the bin. (Well, it's not entirely without honor then, is it?)
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
No
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?   Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars close martina cole
Very good read slow at first but now half way through book up till all hours reading martina cole always a good read
Published 1 month ago by irenewatson
5.0 out of 5 stars A very good read
This book kept me interested all the way through. I love Martina Cole and she doesn't disappoint. I looked forward to when I could carry on reading.
Published 1 month ago by Linda Judd
5.0 out of 5 stars brilliant
Martina Cole at her best !! she is always brilliant - I have found each book to be very different but dealing with similar characters and situations but she manages to make each... Read more
Published 1 month ago by dawn guthrie
5.0 out of 5 stars superb
love martina cole cant get enogh of her books have all of them in paperback now getting them all on my kindle.
Published 2 months ago by dawn sprague
5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent and well read story
We really love the stories written by this author. The stories are well written and very well read. They are totally believable, excellent to listen to on a long car journey.
Published 2 months ago by Mr. P. Lambert-gorwyn
3.0 out of 5 stars bbook
the book is for my wife and she is very pleased so that all that matters. what more can I say
Published 2 months ago by J. Roddy
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book
i love all Martina Cole books o this one was no disappointment the trouble is I cant put them down
Published 2 months ago by Sar10
2.0 out of 5 stars Not quite there
I have read other reviews of this book which state there is far too much description in it. To begin with, I didn't agree, but as I got to the middle I did find I was skipping... Read more
Published 3 months ago by goeash
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book
As you would expect from this writer - gripping, exciting, gruesome, addictive, fantastic as always - would highly recommend to anyone!
Published 3 months ago by Mrs. R. Wootten
4.0 out of 5 stars Great read
Another great story from Martina Cole couldn't put it down,had me in tears at the end with Lily going felt like part of the family
Published 4 months ago by alex coulter
Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

There's a problem loading this menu at the moment.

Learn more about Amazon Prime.

    Your Shopping Basket is empty.

    Give it purpose -- fill it with books, DVDs, clothes, electronics and more.

    If you already have an account, sign in.

    There's a problem previewing your shopping basket at the moment.

    Check your Internet connection and go to your cart, or try again.

    View Shopping Basket (0 items)

      Customer Discussions

      This product's forum
      Discussion Replies Latest Post
      No discussions yet

      Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
      Start a new discussion
      Topic:
      First post:
      Prompts for sign-in
       


      Active discussions in related forums
      Search Customer Discussions
      Search all Amazon discussions
         
      Related forums

      Look for similar items by category

      Feedback


      Amazon.co.uk Privacy Statement Amazon.co.uk Delivery Information Amazon.co.uk Returns & Exchanges