Product Description

Maura Ryan was the queen of the criminal underworld when she pulled off the most audacious gold bullion robbery of all time. Since then she’s retired from a life of crime to be with the only man she’s ever loved. But enemies from her past are closing in and they’re about to learn that they should never cross Maura Ryan. The dangerous lady is back and she’s as lethal as ever...
MAURA’S GAME is an explosive novel of East End violence and corruption from one of the most original voices in fiction today. Martina Cole’s unique blend of emotional drama and shocking realism combine in this electrifying new bestseller.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14016 in Books
• Published on: 2003-04-28
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 640 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
The return of Cole's queen of the criminal underworld, Maura Ryan, in Maura's Game is welcome indeed. Since her first novel Dangerous Lady (which introduced Maura), Cole has broadened her appeal with such novels as Two Women, a grim picture of domestic abuse that coincided with a government initiative on the subject. The new book has no sociological concerns: it's just an extremely powerful journey through a dark underworld where life is cheap.

Maura Ryan has left her life of crime behind her after a big score, and fondly imagines that she can settle down with the man she loves. But the life she has left behind is full of enemies who have plans to make things very tough for her, unless she can make things tough for them first. The proceeds from her last gold-bullion robbery can't help her: she needs all her wit and sinew to survive.

The queasy feeling that comes from being forced to identify with such a ruthless character is a carefully calculated part of Martina Cole's tactics, and works to unsettling effect in this hard-edged thriller. We are never comfortable reading Maura's Game, and that's exactly what the author had in mind. If your taste is for cosy, middle-class thrillers, this is most definitely not for you. But fans of Martina Cole will know exactly what to expect--and boy, does she deliver. --Barry Forshaw

Review
The striking cover picture looks glamorous enough but this innocent photo of a blonde beauty belies the violence within the covers of Cole's latest novel. Maura Ryan might be devoted to her family but she's definitely not someone you'd want among your own nearest and dearest. For one thing, she attracts trouble like no one else and once trouble arrives she takes action like no one else either. The book opens with a flurry of East End nasties - all, it seems, with little else on their minds but the protection and flourishing of their particular 'manor'. Maura's man, Terry Petherick, has just been blown to pieces, and she's not about to forget it. But with the beloved Tel's murder (which, it turns out, was actually meant for herself) comes more trouble in capital letters. The gangsters' women are being brutally murdered, picked off one by one. And Maura's mob are not the guilty party. So who is? Someone is trying to frame the Ryan clan and Maura, newly 50 and still full of simmering anger, is determined to find, and punish, the culprits. To spill the beans about how Maura and the Ryan clan get their revenge would spoil the story, but be assured the endgame will be bloody and violent and have absolutely no reverence for life. Honour - even mob honour - is all that matters, and revenge is brutal and senseless. Cole feels at home in the East-End gangster world - that's evident - and aficionados will buy this latest saga without delay. However, she does not delve too deeply into the society she creates - the novel reads like a soap opera of gangsterland, and its sometimes confusing proliferation of characters detracts from a strongly focused story-line. If you like Cole's style, you'll love this. But the expletive-ridden and rather pedestrian characters hold no surprises. (Kirkus UK)

Synopsis
Maura Ryan was the queen of the criminal underworld when she pulled off the most audacious gold bullion robbery of all time. Since then she's retired from a life of crime to be with the only man she's ever loved. But enemies from her past are closing in and they're about to learn that they should never cross Maura Ryan. The dangerous lady is back and she's as lethal as ever...MAURA'S GAME is an explosive novel of East End violence and corruption from one of the most original voices in fiction today. Martina Cole's unique blend of emotional drama and shocking realism combine in this electrifying new bestseller.

Customer Reviews

hard to get into
After 160 pages I have finally given up. I just cannot get into this book.
There is so many people involved it's quite hard to keep track of who is who.
I bought this as part of a triple pack and after reading everybody's comments I will still give the others a try though.

Make sure you read "Dangerous Lady" first
This is the sequel to Dangerous Lady, and you have to make sure you read them in the correct order. Also, don't leave too long between books as this one assumes you are still fully familiar with the characters and events in the first book - it doesn't have any of the re-caps that most follow-up books have.

i really enjoyed Dangerous Lady and actually felt it was a complete story and should have been left as it was. Writing a sequel, largely featuring the next generation of the family, seemed to me to be milking the success of the first book.

Having said that, this is an excellent book, though not quite as good as the first one. Without giving the plot away, this book picks the story up 8 years after the previous one ended. Maura has become less involved in the family business, but dramatic events ensure she has to get back in the thick of it to resolve escalating problems.

I enjoyed Dangerous Lady because it followed the family from the 1950s to the 1990s, watching many of the characters grow up and start the family firm. It was much, much more than a gangster story, but Maura's Game is little more than a story of London gangland. It is however, a very good book and if you enjoyed Dangerous lady, I'd recommend you read this. It just lacks that extra dimension that Dangerous Lady had.

Brutal detail but made me want to keep reading
I know this is fiction but it is a scary thought that anything like this is happening in the real world. At one point in the book a gangleader is described as living in the same street as some Liverpool players - gems like that being dropped into the narrative make you feel that the stories are more real life than you first think.
I love Martina Cole's underworld, although it feels like a guilty pleasure as there are so many inhumane things going on. Although it is always interesting to see that there runs through her criminal classes a law of what is acceptable and what it not - its only when the rules are broken that there is real trouble.
This book is an unpleasant read and all the more fascinating for that with an amazing hard family who have cracks in their armour just like anyone else (just a bit more difficult to find than most!).