Today, am going to review/chat about Betrayal by Martina Cole. Now, I must admit I have read Martina Cole many MANY years ago - around the time The Know was published in hardback. Yes, THAT FAR INTO THE PAST!!! I remember reading it over Christmas (was Xmas present) and loving it because it was so grown up and so very unlike my normal reads. I was meant to go back to reading more Martina but got sidetracked. So, when the lovely people at Midas PR asked if there was any audiobooks coming out in October/November I wanted to review, I jumped on Betrayal.
Aiden O'Hara has been the head of the family for as long as he can remember. And with him rising quickly in the London underworld, he wants to be on head. Head of the family. Head of the game. And he's going to stay there.
His lover, Jade, has been in the game for longer than Aiden. Mother to his son, calmer of his temper and rage and a force in her own right, Jade knows the truth. She knows that no one is indestructible. Especially in their line of work.
Keep your friends close, your enemies closer and your family close of all, because betrayal comes in all shape and sizes...
I am going to admit this: I am in two minds over Betrayal. I enjoyed the story and kept listening to the audiobook, but at the same time, I kept help but think that I had read this story before...
I enjoy Martina's writing and I like that, while this is very much outside my comfort zone, I sped through and enjoyed the story. This is readable fun and shows Martina is still a force to be reckon with in the crime gangster genre.
However, Betrayal felt lacking. I know some readers of Martina have voiced their disappointment over this book and I understand and agree with some of their problems. The story felt stale and wasn't anything new - I am sure we have all read/watched this story before. There's ever a scene where characters discuss what film is better: Goodfellas or The Godfather (does every gangster-type story have this conversation in?). The characters didn't feel quite fleshed out. Certain words and phrases were used repetitively over the course of several paragraphs. Certain elements of the story were dragged out while the ending felt rushed.
The best way to describe it is this story felt very cookie-cutted. The story, the characters, the situations, they were all cookie-cutted. All very tried and tested. While I don't think that this is a bad thing in some books and series, it felt out of place here. And for an author like Martina Cole to use this formula is off.
I liked listening to the story, don't get me wrong. But it's was lacking. It felt very flat and very paint-by-numbers. And while this might be ok for some readers, other readers will not be so forgiving...
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