SIDNEY SHELDON'S MISTRESS OF THE GAME
Tilly Bagshawe
William Morrow
Fiction
ISBN: 9780061728389
In the tradition of the posthumous Robert Ludlum novels, Tilly Bagshawe, a successful author in her own right, has been charged with the Herculean task of continuing the epic Blackwell family saga from MASTER OF THE GAME in the voice of the late, legendary Sidney Sheldon.
MISTRESS OF THE GAME picks up where MASTER OF THE GAME left off. It's 1984. The powerful and scheming Kate McGregor Blackwell, the woman who made her family's company, Kruger-Brent, one of the largest and most successful in the world, has died. It's not long before her remaining heirs start to scheme, fight and squabble over who will take over. Kate's two granddaughters, Eve and Alexandra, could not be more dissimilar. Alexandra is sweetness and light, in love with her husband and children. Eve is a black-hearted viper who will take on anyone who stands in the way of getting what she feels is rightfully hers. Even her plastic surgeon husband, who destroyed her beautiful face, leaving her to spend most of her time cloistered in their New York apartment planning her revenge, cannot stop her.
When Alexandra dies in childbirth, Eve sees her chance to take over controlling interest in the company, but it's a long-term plan that she must set like a mousetrap. Her young son, Max, is the last peg in her scheme to overthrow her treacherous relatives. She just has to hope that his allegiance to her will supersede all others. Lexi Templeton, the young daughter whom Alexandra never got to know, has been raised within the confines of the family business all her life. After her mother's death, her father Peter was coerced into taking over, although he hated the time away from her and his increasingly remote older son, Robbie.
One horrible night, Lexi is kidnapped and held for ransom. An elaborate escape plot that includes bombs are tripped in the kidnappers' escape, rendering Lexi deaf but thankfully alive. Because of the abuse she suffered at the hands of her kidnappers, and the disability she was now left with, Lexi vows not to let these things impede her chances of success. After ambling through a typical teenage rebellious stage, she grows more serious and focused as she learns about all aspects of the family business. She and her cousin Max are being groomed to one day take over as CEO --- but only one of them can be named the successor. Which one will it be?
As the Blackwell family's saga plays out against the most exclusive backdrops around the globe, Gabe McGregor, a poor, distant relative to Jamie McGregor (Kate Blackwell's father and founder of Kruger-Brent), is determined to rise above his humble beginnings. His family was overlooked by Jamie's good fortune and has been bitter about it ever since. Gabe decides to follow in his ancestor's footsteps and make his own fortune in Africa. After a rocky start that includes a drug addiction and jail time, Gabe finally finds a foothold in the South African housing market, and soon his fortune rivals that of Kruger-Brent. And this is when his path crosses with Lexi's, whose relentless ambition and 16-hour workdays has honed her into becoming a true “Mistress of the Game.”
It's never an easy feat for an established author to take on the mantle of an even more established (and beloved) writer. But Bagshawe knows exactly the audience she's writing for with MISTRESS OF THE GAME because it's precisely the audience she herself writes for --- those readers who love an engrossing, over-the-top family saga with all the trimmings. Much like Sheldon's earlier works, such as RAGE OF ANGELS and BLOODLINE, this story features cut-throat business tactics, kidnapping, adultery, disfigurement, incestuous relationships, murder, sex, and even a wink and a smile that lets you know the book doesn't take itself too seriously: “This time Max's icy hands slipped under Lexi's shirt, grabbing hungrily at her breasts. All Lexi's feminist instincts told her to push him away. But her groin must have missed the Germaine Greer lecture.”
It's fun, over-the-top, and at times, yes, even a little ridiculous, with lines such as “Remember when you proposed to me? At the abortion clinic?” There's also a sexual relationship between cousins that no one seems to be bothered by at all. But the far-fetched aspects of these stories are one of the many tenets that make them popular. Bagshawe triumphantly carries on the tradition of Sidney Sheldon, to the delight and relief of his many fans, and will even encompass and embrace readers of Jackie Collins, Judith Krantz and Bagshawe herself.
--- Reviewed by Bronwyn Miller
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