Shortlisted for the British Book Awards, Crime Thriller of the Year, 2009.
Imelda Dooley is scared. Really scared. She's played hard and fast and now she's been caught. She's pregnant and she's on her own. Her father, not a man to mess with, will see that somebody pays for this. And it's not going to be her. So Imelda Dooley tells a lie. A lie that literally causes murders. When Mary Dooley's husband is killed in the night's events, she knows she must graft to keep the family afloat. And she does, becoming a name in her own right. But she still has to watch her daughter's life spiral into a vicious, hate-fuelled cycle of drugs and prostitution.
Caught up in the carnage that is Imelda's existance are Mary's adored grandchildren, Jordanna and Kenny. Pretty little Jordanna isn't yet three and she already knows far too much. All the little girl can do is look after her baby brother, Kenny, and try not to draw unwanted attention to herself. Set in the heart of London 's criminal world, from the tail-end of the seventies up until the present-day, The Business is a gritty, disturbing and haunting tale of drugs, prostitution and a young girl's fight for survival - against all the odds.
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"I found this book really hard to get into for some reason, after just coming off reading another of her books. I think the situation of hard drugs wasn't a bit pull for me to read it. Alas, I persevered and it was a good read. In my opinion not quite as good as her others.
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Evelyn (4 out of 5 stars)