Book Review: Master of the Game

Author: Sidney Sheldon
Genre: Thriller
Type: Fiction

This book was chosen as part of Popsugar prompt 35: A book by an author whose first and last names start with the same letter. Sidney Sheldon is one of the primary authors that I had read when I moved on to thrillers from Enid Blyton’s works and Nancy Drew and I was never disappointed with any of his novels.

The novel starts with Kate Blackwell where on her ninetieth birthday she recollects the past events of her life and history of the conglomerate she owns Kruger-Brent Ltd. The story mostly happens in South Africa when diamond mining was a booming industry , describes how her father started the company from the scratch and showcases the hunger for power, riches, revenge, passion, betrayal, manipulation spanning across four generations.

You might find yourself pining for a character and the next second hating the same person making the character more humane. In most of Sheldon’s novels we can find strong-willed female characters. One such person is Kate though I am not going to debate on if she is good or evil. Every generation has 1 or 2 central characters and the writing does not make us feel the length of the book.

The novel never slows at any point. It is entertaining, ruthless and unputdownable.