Monday, October 18, 2010

The Kray (Writing) Dynasty

I'm enjoying watching the current series of Whitechapel, which brings to the audience's attention the horrific crimes carried out by the Kray brothers. The Kray name is well known in fiction too with Roberta Kray (widow of Reggie) and Kate Kray (widow of Ronnie) both writing crime fiction. Kate Kray has recently switched from true-crime to fiction with The Betrayed, published by MaxCrime in May 2010. Roberta Kray's latest novel is The Villain's Daughter, published in June by Sphere:

Rosie was a beautiful, young actress when she fell in love with Johnny Mullins, the notorious London gangster. But their married life was far from what she had hoped it would be and was marred by drug abuse and violence. After Johnny was arrested and sentenced to 18 years, it became clear that their relationship was doomed to fail. Now, years later, and for the first time in a long time, life is finally looking up for Rosie Mullins. She has confronted her jealous husband and told him that she wants out, her acting career has taken off, and she has fallen into a new relationship with a top TV executive. All too quickly, however, she finds that Johnny's influence extends far beyond the prison walls that contain him. To make matters worse, his intensely loyal twin brother, "Mad Dog" Eddie, is proving to be every bit as dangerous as her husband. Betrayed by those who had sworn to protect her and cornered by her past, Rosie has to fight with every breath to protect herself and her beloved daughter, Ruby. She finds herself forced to play a very, very dangerous game; setting her old family against her new one.

Sean O'Donnell, small-time villain and family man, walked out of his home nineteen years ago and hasn't been heard of since. Now his daughter, Iris, has returned to the East End in the hope of finding him again. But she's not the only one on his trail. The psychotic Street brothers are right on her heels ? and they've got good reason to want her father dead. With the help of the mysterious Guy Wilder, Iris slowly begins to unearth the horrors of the past. It isn't long before she comes to realise that some secrets are best left buried...

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