Faces - Softcover

Cole, Martina

3.89

2,155 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0446541958 ISBN 13: 9780446541954

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing, 2010

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From international bestselling author Martina Cole comes a gritty, gripping, and utterly unforgettable new novel set in the heart of London's criminal gangland.
Just before Danny Cadogan's fourteenth birthday, his father leaves. Having drunkenly run up a gambling debt he cannot pay, Big Dan Cadogan takes the wrath of the men sent to collect the debt. Determined to protect his mother, brother and sister, something changes in Danny and, overnight, he turns into a young man set on making his way in a violent and dangerous world.

And so, with his childhood friend, Michael Miles, providing the brains behind the operation, Danny Cadogan becomes a Face. Not just a Face, but the most feared Face in the Smoke. Out for all he can get. At any cost.

But Danny's ruthlessness on the streets of London doesn't stop at his front door. He rules his wife, Mary, and children with an iron will -- and his fists. But if Mary breaks her silence, it could shake Danny's criminal empire; right to the very core. And for a Face at the top of his game, there's only one way to go. Down. Because, after all, debts can be paid even without money.

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About the Author:

Martina Cole was born and brought up in Essex, England. Her first novel, Dangerous Lady, was an instant bestseller and became a highly successful TV drama series. Since then, she has written 13 more bestselling novels set in the criminal underworld, one of which, The Jump, was also made into a successful British television series.

From Booklist:

*Starred Review* Danny Cadogan is 14 years old when his father runs out on a gambling debt, leaving behind his wife and children. Danny, who had vowed never to become a brutal man like his father, does the only thing he can to protect his family: he becomes a Face (British slang for a gangster). Soon he’s running a crime empire based on ruthlessness and retribution. He climbs to the top of the heap, but how long can a man with so many enemies stay there? And can he somehow regain some small part of the good man he had wanted to be? This gripping novel, set against the backdrop of the British criminal underworld, may remind some readers of the movie Scarface (either the Muni or Pacino version). As Scarface was a portrait of a criminal and his lifestyle, so is Faces. As Scarface was brutal and compelling, so is Faces. But this is no mere retelling of the Scarface story, or indeed of the story of the Krays, the notorious real-life British gangsters, although there are clear parallels to both. It is, rather, a masterful crime saga by the Mario Puzo of Britain, and it grabs us by the throat and refuses to let go. --David Pitt

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