The Ladykiller by Martina Cole - A gripping thriller

The Ladykiller is a crime thriller by best selling author Martina Cole,most of her books hit the Sunday times best seller list for weeks at a time and several of her books have gone on to become hugely popular television drama series and several of her other novels are in talks to become future productions.Martina Cole tells it like it is and seems to have an endless knowledge for all things east end (London that is) she tells it as if she has first hand experience at being involved in gang activities.This is the first book of hers i have read after having seen the drama The Take which was derived from one of her books and now i own four or five more of her outstanding thrillers,i got hooked immediately and can not put the any of the books down once i start reading.

George Markham has a nasty little hobby..... A depraved and disturbing hobby that he is trying to keep secret from his nagging and intrusive wife who he hates with a vengeance.His sexual deviancy knows no bounds and the urges are getting stronger.

Patrick Kelly is a hard man feared throughout London with a string of illegal strip joints and brothels, he is not a man to be messed with, so when the man people are referring to as the Grantley ripper rapes and kills Kelly's daughter he does not realise what he has done and how it will effect his life.Kelly on the other hand is changing, he doesn't quite no how yet but the wheels are in motion just like the wheels that are set in motion when Kelly sets out to find and kill his daughters murderer using all his underworld knowledge and contacts.

The detective in charge of the ripper case is DI burrows a feisty lady who does everything by the book but when she begins to fall for Patrick Kelly her life is turned upside down and she is putting everything at risk.As london's underworld and the police converge to find the killer Di Burrows fears she may lose everything.

Martina Cole manages to involve you in a world that you have only seen in films, taking you into the dark depraved mind of the killer,she involves you in a way that you can only imagine,she is one of the best writers when it comes to London's gangland activities and manages to convince you of the feelings of an underworld crime figure as well as getting you involved in what the killer is thinking and feeling as he commits acts of terrible violence and sexual depravity.

This is a brilliant book to begin with if you have not read any of Martina Cole's books before,her writing is top notch and the characters are well written and believable,there is also a follow up book called Broken featuring some of the characters you grow to love in the first book.If you love crime and thriller novels and trying to figure out how the book will end then this will keep you guessing all the way up to the final surprising yet violent conclusion.