Martina Cole is a rarity among novelists. Her work is set in the ugly, male-dominated world of London’s criminal fraternity and yet nearly all her fans are women. Blonde women, in particular, as I found out when I took my seat in the Theatre Royal Stratford East to see Patrick Prior’s adaptation of her breakthrough novel, Dangerous Lady. In a great sea of peroxide hairdos, my coiffure was the only point of darkness.
Cole’s novel starts with a gem of an idea. She takes the brutal mythology of the Kray twins and softens it with a dash of femininity. Her criminal gangsters have a sister. The Ryans are a family of Irish Catholics dominated by a ruthless matriarch, Sarah. The eldest brother, Michael, based on Ronnie Kray, is a charismatic cocaine addict who enjoys the company of curly-haired disco-dancing weightlifters. He and his thuggish younger brothers spend the 1960s carving out a criminal empire by intimidating bookies, cab firms and nightclub owners across London.
We first meet their little sister Maura at a dance hall where she’s being chatted up by a handsome young charmer, Terry.
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