From the author of DANGEROUS LADY, a novel about a young woman who is sent to a remand centre after she strikes her abusive father. She escapes from a remand centre only to face life as a prostitute, but is rescued by a transvestite singer who teaches her how to survive amongst the villains of Soho, but not how to leave her past behind her.
The Runaway
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Review
'No one writes about East End women and their vagaries like Martina Cole' -- Maxim Jakubowski, Murder One 20020329 '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 20020329 '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 20020329 'Right from the start [Cole] has enjoyed unqualified approval for her distinctive and powerfully written fiction' -- The Times 20020329 'Intensely readable' -- Guardian 20020329 'Martina Cole explores the shady criminal underworld, a setting she is fast making her own' -- Sunday Express 20020329 'Utterly compelling' -- Mirror 20020329 'The story will grip you from the first pages' -- Best 20020329 'Gritty novel from an author who knows intimately the world she writes about' -- Express 20020329
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
About the Author
Martina Cole was born and brought up in Essex. She is the bestselling author of thirteen novels set in London's gangland, and her most recent three paperbacks, as well as her latest hardback, have gone straight to No. 1 in the Sunday Times on first publication. Total sales of Martina's novels stand at eight million copies.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Having read all the authors available books this is by far the best. A book you can read time and time again. More please!
42 of 47 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
I have read all Ms Coles books to date and this would have to be the very very best I have read. It had me on the corner of my seat from the very 1st chapter and I read and read and read until the very last word. I was crying my eyes out in the end, so much so that I had to stop for a bit and compose myself before being able to finish this book. A wonderful story, fantastically thought out characters, descriptions that leave you breathless, a touch of humour and a tad of sadness. Left me wanting to re-read this one again and again! Can't wait for her new one to arrive on my doorstep!
18 of 20 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
This is the first Martina Cole book that I have ever read. Gripping from the beginning and had me hooked. Violent and sad at the same time; never read any thriller that uses our own country's underworld for location, so found it more shocking because of that. Had to keep reading it to find out what would happen next. I can't wait to read the rest of Martina's books.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
By S Irvine
Format:Paperback
This is an amazing book ! , holds you from the 1st few pages .... right till the very end , you cry , laugh .. smile ! and you want to MAKE everyone read it . I made my hubby read it right after me , he said " noooo .. it`s a girls book ! " but trust me it`s not , and he couldn`t put it down either . Buy it and enjoy ... and pass it on , make ppl read it !
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
This was the first Martina Cole book i had read and i couldnt put it down. I was gald that i was on holiday at the time as i became complety caught up in the criminal world. Since then i have read Broken, Facless, Dangerous Lady, Mauras Game, The Graft, Two Women all of which get better and better. I had read some of them during my exams which was a bad idea as i couldnt put them down. Runaway is one of many of her books all of which are the same genre but alll very different and just as gripping. Great reading and great way to chil out!
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
I've been desperate to find a decent book which I can bury my head in, trying to get away from all this 30 something trash.
This was fantastic, a true pager tuner, if you don't enjoy this book i'll eat my shorts!!!
13 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The first of Martina Cole's books that I read and still remains one of my favourites that I find myself going back to again and again. The characters are all very different, but all linked through one character.
Enjoyed this book so much that I've bought all her other ones.
Highly recommended!!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By bobbycow
Format:Paperback
Am I alone in finding all of Martina Cole's books written to a pattern?
The same old setting and the characters could be cut out of a child's magazine set. They have no depth or realism - violence and graphic detail are not the same as realism.
She also stretches coincidence to an extreme: as the blurb says on the Runaway when the main characters are parted with one in London and the other in New York "it was inevitable their paths would cross again!" Really? Inevitable? A would be NY small time gangster crossing paths with a homeless London girl he once knew in their distant past. INEVITABLE? Only the way Ms Cole writes them.
Apart from being improbable and predictable (the two are not mutually exclusive,) I find the characters unsympathetic - I really can't bring myself to care much what happens to any of them. I don't think that's my callousness - I think it's because she writes them that way. Even a baddie should have some redeeming features, yet Eamonn seems evil through and through - there's nothing to like, nothing to make you waver. That makes him inhuman. The book is all action driven, with even the dialogue being driven by action: there's very little contemplation, hesitation, or wavering -- the characters seem to come to decisions on the fly. This gives very little opportunity for them to reveal who they really are and what contradictions drive them, what doubts they have, what torments rack their dreams, what terrors makes them sleep with the light on. That way we understand them better. And althoug we might still vote for a sticky end for Eamonn, we would understand it better, and it would be more satisfying and seem more real.... Read more ›
The same old setting and the characters could be cut out of a child's magazine set. They have no depth or realism - violence and graphic detail are not the same as realism.
She also stretches coincidence to an extreme: as the blurb says on the Runaway when the main characters are parted with one in London and the other in New York "it was inevitable their paths would cross again!" Really? Inevitable? A would be NY small time gangster crossing paths with a homeless London girl he once knew in their distant past. INEVITABLE? Only the way Ms Cole writes them.
Apart from being improbable and predictable (the two are not mutually exclusive,) I find the characters unsympathetic - I really can't bring myself to care much what happens to any of them. I don't think that's my callousness - I think it's because she writes them that way. Even a baddie should have some redeeming features, yet Eamonn seems evil through and through - there's nothing to like, nothing to make you waver. That makes him inhuman. The book is all action driven, with even the dialogue being driven by action: there's very little contemplation, hesitation, or wavering -- the characters seem to come to decisions on the fly. This gives very little opportunity for them to reveal who they really are and what contradictions drive them, what doubts they have, what torments rack their dreams, what terrors makes them sleep with the light on. That way we understand them better. And althoug we might still vote for a sticky end for Eamonn, we would understand it better, and it would be more satisfying and seem more real.... Read more ›
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4.6 out of 5 stars
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A pageturner
Wow. Martina can certainly tell a story but this was something else. I know a lot of her books are criticised and a few of them not very good but this isn't one of them. Read more
Published 17 days ago by ShaunOK
4.0 out of 5 stars
Review
You really can't go wrong with Martina Cole books and this one has recently been televised on Sky and the adaptation was quite good
Published 21 days ago by Dawn
4.0 out of 5 stars
A real page turner
Really enjoyed this book, couldn't put it down, the characters were so real. The book gave the reader a sense of life in the underworld
Published 23 days ago by Barbara
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Runaway Martina Cole
Just what I wanted, very fast delivery, will use again and very good quality. It has been a great read and truely recommended. Thank you very much.
Published 24 days ago by Mrs Maria Richard
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent.
Loved this book.... My favourite is two women, but this one is really gripping and I would definitely recommend it.
Published 1 month ago by Lesley
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Runaway
This is one of the best books I have read for a long time, could not put it down, though when I did I could not leave it for long
I am saving this book to read again later.
I am saving this book to read again later.
Published 1 month ago by jude
5.0 out of 5 stars
The runaway
Brilliant book couldn't put it down! Great storyline and gripping events, true loved rained at the end, not looks or money but true love!
Published 1 month ago by samantha dann
4.0 out of 5 stars
The runaway
A really good read I was unable to put it down would recommend to all my friends Martina Cole has done it again brilliant
Published 2 months ago by carol parnell
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great read
enthralled from start to finish. I love long stories and this book was so vivid in the details that I really could picture the scenes as though I was there. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Sally 74
2.0 out of 5 stars
Unfinished plot and lack of development
This is a weighty tome and one I enjoyed to a point but I have to say in a book this large the story was underdeveloped at a couple of crucial points and there was no twist and no... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Sam
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