My rating: 2 of 5 stars
“Drink from the fountain of love where every drop is eternal passion.”
----Mahogany SilverRain
L.S. Hilton, an English best selling author, has penned a sexy and extremely scandalous thriller, Maestra that narrates the story of a highly educated assistant auctioneer who starts working as a hostess for a shady nightclub to make her ends meet, but when an art dealing goes wrong with a client that makes her to lose her job due to her attitude of sniffing into a possible art fraud case, she plunges into the world of revenge with her rage that makes her weak for designer labels and men with money and sometimes killing too, thereby making her finally powerful.
Synopsis:
A shockingly original thriller - the launch title of Zaffre, the new fiction imprint of Bonnier Publishing Fiction
Judith Rashleigh works as an assistant in a prestigious London auction house, but her dreams of breaking into the art world have been gradually dulled by the blunt forces of snobbery and corruption. To make ends meet she moonlights as a hostess in one of the West End's less salubrious bars - although her work there pales against her activities on nights off.
When Judith stumbles across a conspiracy at her auction house, she is fired before she can expose the fraud. In desperation, she accepts an offer from one of the bar's clients to accompany him to the French Riviera. But when an ill-advised attempt to slip him sedatives has momentous consequences, Judith finds herself fleeing for her life.
Now alone and in danger, all Judith has to rely on is her consummate ability to fake it amongst the rich and famous - and the inside track on the hugely lucrative art fraud that triggered her dismissal.
Set in the exotic palaces and yachts of Europe's seriously wealthy. With a heroine as wickedly perceptive as Amy Dunne and as dangerous as Lisbeth Salander, this marks the beginning of a sequence of novels that will have readers around the world on the edge of their seats and holding their breath.
Judith Rashleigh, a college graduate, works as an assistant art dealer for a reputed auction house in London, but neither her job pays her well to make the ends meet nor does she get that recognition in workplace that she deserve. Soon her luck opens a wide door to become a hostess at a shady nightclub where she needs to wear skimpy uniform to make her clients pay for the costliest bottle of alcohol. But one unfortunate incident while dealing about art with a client as well as her sniffing around a possible art fraud in her company make her lose her job as an assistant, and that throws her on a full-on rage war where she goes on an affluent vacation getaway to the south of France with one of her clients from the nightclub, and when that simple vacation that smelt like money and sea breeze turn deadly, Judith runs from one country to another all the while gold digging into the designer wallets of some rich men and indulging into dirty carnal desires and maybe killing too.
When E.L. James' mummy porn, Fifty Shades of Grey is mashed up with a bit of Patricia Higsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley, then it turns into something painful and monotonous like L.S. Hilton's Maestra. Yes welcome to the torturous world of the protagonist, Judith, a.k.a Lauren, who is on a run from the stupid police detectives (who are most probably existing in the oblivion) around the globe, and surprisingly, those kind of incapable detectives existed all through out the globe from London to France to Italy, as wherever she went, she left quite a mess which is loud and observable even by a common individual, but luckily, every one apart from the protagonist are blind.
Okay this book is marketed as a thriller, then where's the thrill or that hair-raising or riveting moment that grasps the readers psychologically with the unexpected twists or the horror? Well sadly, the story is very, very dull and incomprehensible, even the scenes and the logic behind them do not ever sync. And if a reader is frantically looking forward to have that sexy experience that one had while reading that James' mummy porn, then they won't be dissapointed.
The author's writing is okay but not that articulate enough to let the readers comprehend the plot. The narrative is baffling and not at all free flowing, so its very boring and mind numbing. The beginning of the story is quite intriguing but gradually the story begins to show its true color of failed attempts on being thrilling. The pacing is swift moreover what will interest the readers is the different countries and exotic destinations that the author has captured strikingly into the story line.
The characters from the book are not that well developed, moreover they lacked depth or realism from their demeanor. The main character is very disconnected although her passion for sex and money is very much evident from the way her mind works. Although she is smart, but if she could have used that intellect to direct her way to find out about that art fraud, rather than using it to use men like toys. The rest of the characters are also quite unimpressive.
In a nutshell, this is a vague and very boring story about lust where the word "c**t", "thighs", "moisture" will delude the readers from the main story. Apart from that, the author vividly captures the beauty and charm of the each destinations mentioned in the story.
Verdict: Waste of money!
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Author Info:
L. S. Hilton grew up in England and has lived in Key West, New York City, Paris, and Milan. After graduating from Oxford, she studied art history in Paris and Florence. She has worked as a journalist, art critic, and broadcaster, and is presently based in London.
Visit her here
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