Mistress of the Game

As a great fan of Sidney Sheldon and having just read a couple of his books earlier missed, it was with a mix of expectation and sceptisism I picked up "Mistress of the Game".It started out well enough and for a few chapters I felt I was, at least partly, back in that magic world. Then slowly things started to change. Nothing I could quite put my finger on, but something was not quite right and it became more and more obvious. Instead of getting more, I got less interested in the storyline. Nothing which happened surprised me and having not even reached a third of the book, I was at times getting slightly bored. Were all those details necessary.........?The book is not all bad. I did finish it and found it for the most easygoing and relaxing - to pick up for half an hour's read at bed time... But compared to the original Shidney Sheldon works which made me frantically turn pages until the wee hours, it simply could not compete.The thing is, when Sidney Sheldon writes, he never gives more information about the characters than absolutely necessary. No more details of the plot than a minimum to keep the story flowing, often leaving words unwritten since their meaning have already been told, although unsaid. Chapters short and to the point. Every sentence an invitation to hurry on to the next. Fast. Frantic. Unstoppable.Better editing might have helped somewhat but all in all, the idea of having another author, any author, write a sequel to a book - and his masterpiece at that - by a genius like Sidney Sheldon, is in my opinion bound to become a disappointment, not the least to his many and highly devoted admirers. Tilly Bagshawe is a good writer but she is NOT Sidney Sheldon and it shows. There is no carrying on the magic of the Master of the Unexpected and there is surely not much unexpected in this book.Also, with Sidney Sheldon's name so prominently placed on top of the front cover, many readers will undoubtedly be tricked into thinking this is an original manuscript left by the great master himself. They are bound to become disappinted.

i thought it was every bit as good as Sidney Sheldon ,all the twists and turns in it, the only thing i felt that Keith Webster got killed too quickly, it would have been nice to see a bit more development between him and Eve, (she was a dreadful woman!) maybe if Keith Webster had conti ued being bossy with her, like in the first book, "Master of the game" as he became demanding and peremptory,and then he was all nice as he had been originally, and when he turned nasty, Eve was very submissive.there were a couple of mistakes, Rory in the other book was seeing Eve, not Alexander, (unless he didn't know the difference being twins) and Eve had begged Keith Webster to fix the lines under her eyes. not the other way around. but a few minor things like that dont really matter much, as it was a cracking good read!

Sidney Sheldon's Mistress of the Game I have been reading the late Sidney Sheldon's books for about 25 years and I am a great fan of his - my favourite being Master Of the Game which is brilliantly written and unputdownable. I was delighted therefore to see that Tilly Bagshaw had shadow written a sequel - Mistress of the Game and I ordered it immediately. While her writing style is quite different, it is no less exciting and she has done a very good job of following on from the original story. However, she can't measure up to the Master himself, but her story was very readable and I enjoyed it hugely. At the end of the day, no one could ever do justice to Sidney Sheldon, but I feel Tilly came close. Sidney Sheldon's Mistress of the Game

Once I started reading this sequel to "Master Of The Game" I personally found it impossible to put down. It's GREAT. Very well written. A must read.The only thing that made me wonder towards the end is how exactly did Eve Blackwell die?

First of all I have to say that had this book been published on its own, without a prequel, then this would be a good story well told. However, having been a long-standing fan of the far superior Master of the Game, I was particularly disappointed with this book. There are a few obvious inconsistencies, eg: David Blackwell was American, not Scottish, and he died after WW1, not WWII. Also, how did Tony Blackwell die when he was very much alive at the end of Master of the Game? What happened to Kate Blackwell's grand palace on 5th Avenue? Aside from these, I was surprised to see how this book projected well into the future - 2025. Was it an attempt to give the sequel some substance to ensure consistency with the prequel? All up, not a bad book - however, it would have been far more sensible for the author to attempt a sequel to Rage of Angels or If Tomorrow Comes.