Chapters (155)

Several of Martina’s novels have been adapted for the screen, most recently The Take and The Runaway which were shown on Sky One to remarkable reviews. In addition, Two Women and The Graft have been adapted for the stage; both were highly acclaimed when performed at the Theatre Royal Stratford East, which also staged Dangerous Lady in 2012, celebrating twenty years since Martina’s debut novel was published.

Martina Cole is a phenomenon. She continues to smash sales records with each of her books, which have sold in excess of eleven million copies in total. In 2011 Martina surpassed the £50 million sales mark since records began and was the first British female novelist for adult audiences to achieve this.

Martina’s hard-hitting, uncompromising and haunting writing is in a genre all its own – no one writes like Martina. 2013 sees the publication of this, her twentieth novel, and with Revenge she is back and better than ever.

Praise for Martina Cole

Praise for Martina Cole:

‘A blinding good read’ Ray Winstone

‘Intensely readable’ Guardian

‘An extraordinarily powerful piece of family drama’ Daily Mirror

‘Gritty novel from an author who knows intimately the world she writes about’ Express

‘Her gripping plots pack a mean emotional punch’ Mail on Sunday

‘Cole has the amazing talent of making characters appear larger than life’ Sun

Also by Martina Cole

By Martina Cole and available from Headline

Dangerous Lady

The Ladykiller

Goodnight Lady

The Jump

The Runaway

Two Women

Broken

Faceless

Maura’s Game

The Know

The Graft

The Take

Faces

The Business

Hard Girls

The Family

The Faithless

The Life

Revenge

About REVENGE

BE SURE YOUR SINS WILL FIND YOU OUT.

Michael Flynn is untouchable in a world of power, money and violence. He fights for what he wants and he takes it, whatever the cost. He learns the rules of the Life from the best and when his mentor, legendary Face Patrick Costello, is taken out, no one questions that Michael Flynn is his natural successor. For Michael, loyalty – and crime – pay.

Michael rises to heights beyond anything the criminal underworld has seen. He owns everyone and he ruls his empire with an even but fierce hand. No one would dare challenge him.

Then the unthinkable happens.

Perhaps Michael Flynn is not so untouchable after all, and he must learn that . . .

WITHOUT THE SHEDDING OF BLOOD THERE CAN BE NO FORGIVENESS OF SINS.

Dedication

For Darley and Adele,
with all my love

Prologue

The Lord shall smite thee with madness

Deuteronomy 28:28

2012

‘Hello! Are you not listening to me? My little girl has been missing for three fucking days. I think that might be worth your attention, don’t you?’