Martina Cole books in order take readers into the criminal underworld of London and Essex, where gangland families, loyalty, betrayal, ambition, and violence shape every story. Cole is a British crime writer best known for hard-edged novels that often place formidable women at the center of dangerous families and criminal empires.
Her books can be brutal, but the strongest stories are driven by relationships, power, and the consequences of crime. Many of her novels explore how those choices affect several generations of the same family.
Jump to:
- Martina Cole Books by Series
- Martina Cole Standalone Books
- Martina Cole Digital Companion and Short Fiction
- Martina Cole Adaptations
- Who is Martina Cole?
Martina Cole Books by Series
Martina Cole has two recurring series. I recommend reading each one in the order listed because the character relationships and personal histories continue from book to book.
Maura Ryan Books
Dangerous Lady introduces seventeen-year-old Maura Ryan as she rises through London’s criminal underworld alongside her brother Michael. Cole returned to Maura a decade later in Maura’s Game. I’d start with Dangerous Lady and continue directly to the sequel. Publication order and chronological order are the same.
- Dangerous Lady (1992)
- Maura’s Game (2002)
DI Kate Burrows Books
The DI Kate Burrows series follows a detective investigating violent criminals while her personal life draws her into a relationship with London gangster Patrick Kelly. Kate and Patrick’s story develops across all four books, so my advice is to follow the order below. Publication order and chronological order are the same.
- The Ladykiller (1993)
- Broken (2000)
- Hard Girls (2009)
- Damaged (2017)
Martina Cole Standalone Books
Most of Martina Cole’s novels are standalones with new characters and self-contained stories. You can read them in any order. I prefer publication order because it shows how her style and recurring themes developed, but you can also start with whichever premise interests you most.
Loyalty, Guilty, and No Regret were written with Jacqui Rose. The Stretch is Cole’s first solo-written novel since No Mercy and her twenty-ninth novel.
- Goodnight Lady (1994)
- The Jump (1995)
- The Runaway (1997)
- Two Women (1999)
- Faceless (2001)
- The Know (2003)
- The Graft (2004)
- The Take (2005)
- Close (2006)
- Faces (2007)
- The Business (2008)
- The Family (2010)
- The Faithless (2011)
- The Life (2012)
- Revenge (2013)
- The Good Life (2014)
- Get Even (2015)
- Betrayal (2016)
- No Mercy (2019)
- Loyalty with Jacqui Rose (2023)
- Guilty with Jacqui Rose (2024)
- No Regret with Jacqui Rose (2025)
- The Stretch (2026)
Martina Cole Digital Companion and Short Fiction
The Knowledge: A Free Digital Compendium isn’t a conventional novel or nonfiction book. It combines material about Cole and her interests with short fiction, samples from her novels, and a preview of Betrayal. I’d treat it as optional companion material rather than part of either series.
Cole also contributed a short story to Tart Noir, an anthology edited by Stella Duffy and Lauren Henderson. It isn’t connected to Maura Ryan or DI Kate Burrows, but readers looking for her short fiction may want to include it.
- Tart Noir (2002) (Anthology; includes a Martina Cole short story)
Martina Cole Adaptations
Television Adaptations
Four Martina Cole novels have been adapted for television. Each production is based on a single book rather than combining stories from her recurring series. I recommend the books if you want Cole’s full character arcs and subplots.
Dangerous Lady became a four-part ITV miniseries in 1995. It stars Sheila Hancock, Jason Isaacs, Susan Lynch, and Owen Teale.
The Jump was adapted as a four-part ITV miniseries in 1998, starring Adrian Dunbar, Jonathan Cake, Susan Vidler, and John Light.
The Take became a four-part Sky1 miniseries in 2009. Tom Hardy stars as Freddie Jackson alongside Kierston Wareing, Shaun Evans, and Charlotte Riley.
The Runaway was adapted as a six-part Sky1 miniseries in 2011. Its cast includes Joanna Vanderham, Jack O’Connell, Ken Stott, and Alan Cumming.
Stage Adaptations
Three Cole novels have also been adapted for the stage at Theatre Royal Stratford East. Two Women was staged in 2010, followed by The Graft in 2011 and Dangerous Lady in 2012. The Dangerous Lady production marked twenty years since the novel’s publication.
Who is Martina Cole?
Martina Cole is a British crime writer who grew up in Essex. Her debut novel, Dangerous Lady, was published in 1992 and became a bestseller. Her fiction is known for its gangland settings, powerful female characters, complicated families, and direct treatment of violence and abuse.
Cole received the Crime Writers’ Association Diamond Dagger in 2021 and the Theakston Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution Award in 2024. When the CWA presented the Diamond Dagger, it reported that her books had sold more than 17 million copies, that seventeen of her novels had reached No. 1, and that her work had spent more than four years on bestseller charts. With The Faithless, she became the first British female novelist writing for an adult audience to pass £50 million in sales since Nielsen BookScan records began.
Looking for more books in order?
If you want more thriller authors and reading-order guides like this one, start with my Thriller Books in Order index.