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by Martina Cole · 2006

The #1 bestselling novelist in the UK makes her U.S. debut with a hard-hitting story that combines the brutality and deep family ties of The Sopranos with an unparalleled look at the underbelly of London's gang land. Patrick… more

23 quotes ★ 4.15 (3,464) Mystery

Quotes from the Book

People only know what you tell them.And it was true.People gave out their whole life stories to anyone and everyone without a second's thought.Stand at a bus stop,sit in a strange pub,get banged up,and someone would always give you their life story.It was as if they were trying to prove they existed
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He had found many years ago before that if you kept very quiet people filled in the silences themselves,offering more information than they had originally intended to give.
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‎"If the person you were fighting had any kind of wound,worry it and keep at it And the pain would be much more intense.It was the psychological angle and all.Once a cut was there,it was human nature to try to protect it from more harm.
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because she was the best thing that ever happened to any of us; she kept us together, and she made sure we were a family. Now all we have left is each other.’ Christy looked at them all and said quietly, ‘Amen to that.
Listen, life is short, even at its longest, it’s short.
Non Omnis Moriar. I shall not altogether die. Horace (65 BC-8 BC)
old Irish adage, people only know what you tell them.
The fathers have eaten sour grapes, And the children’s teeth are set on edge Ezekiel 18:2
People only know what you tell them. Well, if you didn’t tell them anything then you were safe.
And it was true. People gave out their whole life stories to anyone and everyone without a second’s thought. Stand at a bus stop, sit in a strange pub, get banged up, and someone would always give you their life story.
Young Pat Junior was a handful, and he loved him with all his heart. He was his father’s son all right; he only hoped that he didn’t have anything of his paternal grandfather inside him.
Walking away was easy, it was staying around and sorting out your own shit that took guts, that made you a man.
She was shivering from the cold, and from her deep-seated fear of having to live a broken and lonely life like this for the rest of her days. So stunted were her emotions, though, that even now, at her lowest ebb, it did not occur to her to cry. Crying had never gained Lily anything, even as a baby it had never brought her mother to her side, and so she did not understand that to most girls of her age it was a powerful weapon to be used, was a tool to be harnessed and eventually unleashed on the men in her life, both old and new, to guarantee that she got exactly what she wanted.
Now, as a wage earner, she had gained a certain grudging respect, but it had been a long time coming. At fifteen, she understood her life better than people three times her age; she needed to keep the peace until she had enough money to set up on her own, or marry herself out of it all.
He had no intention of fighting for a country that he saw as holding men down and offering them nothing except back-breaking work. He had said as much to his commanding officer. He had also robbed the army stores blind; the black market was still thriving at the time, and he had used that for his own ends.
She had held them together with the sheer force of her will and her overpowering love. What would happen to them all now? Who would keep them all together, make sure they didn’t fall apart, didn’t rake up the past and cause murders?
She had always been the voice of reason, had been the one who smoothed over quarrels and made sure that they remembered they were family. Stopped the fights before they began and reminded them that, at the end of the day, each other was all that any of them really had. As close as they were, they had all fallen out big time over the years. She had been the voice of reason.
How they had the nerve to sanction other countries about their penal laws when they treated their own as guilty before there was even a trial, he did not know. Innocent till proven guilty?
he was an intelligent lunatic and they were as dangerous as they were rare.
The future was eventually all about what you had really done, not what you wished you had done.
O Lord, thou hast seen my wrong: Judge thou my cause. Lamentations 3:59
She already looked dead and Eileen knew that it couldn’t be long before she went. But even though she knew it would be a happy release for her mother, the thought of her never being there ever again was terrifying. She depended on her so much, needed her so desperately that even though she knew it was selfish, she prayed her mother pulled through as she had before.
The words were spoken quietly, not in anger, but they were laced with a malevolence that only a fool would choose to ignore.

About Martina Cole

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About the book

The #1 bestselling novelist in the UK makes her U.S. debut with a hard-hitting story that combines the brutality and deep family ties of The Sopranos with an unparalleled look at the underbelly of London's gang land. Patrick Brodie is on the way up. He is a risk-taker like his alcoholic father, and knows exactly how far he is prepared to go to get what he wants. Before long, Patrick has ruthlessly taken out the old guard of the criminal underworld and become a legend in his own lifetime. The kind of women he is normally attracted to have no foolish dreams of marriage, children, or, God help them, love. But Lily Diamond is different. There's something about her that has gotten under Patrick's skin, and all he can think about is making her happy and keeping her safe. Eventually they settle down and have a family, and grow determined that their children will not have to face the same kind o

Book details

First published
2006
Genre
Mystery
Goodreads rating
4.15 (3k ratings)

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