Customer Reviews
Excellent - By: A. Rose, 03 Mar 2008 
Gilda O'Neill is a fantastic East End crime writer both of fact & fiction. I've read two or three of her other novels & reallly enjoyed them & thought how similar a writer she is to Mandasue Heller and, to a slightly lesser extent, Martina Cole (O'Neill is not quite as horrific & foul-mouthed as Cole's books). I thoroughly enjoyed each of this particular East End Trilogy - Sins of Their Fathers, Make Us Traitors & Of Woman Born. Each book was an excellent story in its own right & if you wanted to read only one you wouldn't feel that you'd lost much storyline by not reading the other two, although if reading alll three you reallly must get them in the right order. All three are fast paced, gripping exciting reads.
Sins of Their Fathers - an excellent start to the trilogy giving a good background to the O'Donnell family, Gabriel, his wife Eileen & their two fairly gentle daughters Patricia & Catherine & the two sons Brendan & Luke who follow their father in the family `business'. This book explains the relationship & initial meeting between the O'Donnells & their rivals, the Kesslers. There's never a dull moment in the book with violence & tragedy from the very start & also at the end !
Make Us Traitors - carries on where Sins of Their Fathers left off with the two O'Donnell sons, Brendan & Luke, running the show now that their father is dead. This book brings Gabriel O'Donnell's (now dead father) illegitimate daughter into the family with the odd touch of tenderness between alll the viciousness with the rival Kessler family. As with the previous book, there is tragedy & death at the end giving a very exciting finish.
Of Woman Born - this book is more up to date & doesn't quite start where the previous book finished. This book concentrates on the illegal trafficking of people, in this case mainly women for the sex trade. It's thankfully not too graphic but certainly doesn't hold back on the sleaze & violence in the lives of these women in their frightening & degrading situations. The O'Donnell & Kesslers are still key in this book but we are now into the grandchildren of the originals from Sins of Their Fathers. This book is just as gripping, fast paced & as violent as the first two with an ending that nicely rounds off the trilogy.
Great read - By: , 11 Mar 2005 This second part of the trilogy is fantastic & can't wait for the third part. This is a must read if you like east end gangster type reads. All about a family full of exceptional characters who are into violence, sex, drugs & more than loving thier own family to death, literallly!
