The Graft [Hardcover]

I have to admit I gave up on this book about 1/3 through. It is coarse, slow and unappealing. The plot plods along. The characters are cardboard cliches who are unattractive. She wants to be gritty and hard-hitting but it comes across as forced and unnatural. Very disappointing.

At first I couldn't really get into this book. I thought the writing was really bad and needed a good editing. Also, being Greek,I had trouble understanding some of the British slang. There was too much 'telling' and not enough 'showing'.Phrases and sentences were repeated over and over until you wanted to scream 'Ok, we get it, get on with the plot!'.There were whole chapters where almost nothing was happening because there was detailed description of the characters' thoughts, feelings and flashbacks. Also, at the begining I thought the characters were unconvincing. I couldn't really 'get' them, or understand why they behaved like they did. I didn't really like any of them. One minute they were decent people and the next they were complete jerks. Why did 'tough guy' Nick cry like a baby over killing an armed robber that broke into his home and then torture and kill people withought feeling any remorse ? Why did he let his wife sleep around ? Why did the couple live with Nick's mother ? Why did everyone feel sorry for that b..ch Junky Jude ? It didn't make any sense.

I was ready to give the book up, but around page 200 something happened. I'm not really sure if the writing got any better or if I got used to the bad writing, but the pace started to pick up and things started to make sense. By the end of the book everything was falling beautifully into place and I couldn't put the book down.

This book explores the criminal underworld in a very realistic and absorbing way, although there is too much sex, violence and drugs in the book, and too many perverts. Not a masterpiece, but recommended.

The Graft is my fifth Martina Cole book after reading The Take, The Ladykiller, The Know and Broken. While my first 4 Martina Cole books had me gripped from page one I have to agree with others before me.....The Graft wasn't up to Cole's usual standard.

The story starts with the death of a local villain who is killed while trying to burgle the house of local hardman Nick Leary. Nick becomes the hero of the hour after `doing what anyone would have done' when faced with a local thug with a gun in his house in the middle of the night. While everyone applauds Nick for protecting his own Nick is having trouble dealing with what he's done. For a man who maims and kills in the course of his every day why should the death of a villain like Sonny Hatcher upset him so much? That's where the real story lies.

While The Graft had the usual formula of hard men, tragedy and retribution I too felt 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 700-odd 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. Disappointing.