This is the third and final part of L S Hilton's trilogy about art gallery owner Judith Rashleigh, a woman who is often on the wrong side of the law. In this installment, Judith turns art fraudster with a crazy plot about selling a Gauguin painting to pay off some dangerous crooks she met in the previous books. On the way she has lots of sex with random strangers and kills some people (as in the previous books). Basically, think of a kind of British Jackie Collins novel but with some quite highbrow art references (the writer is an art historian so she absolutely knows her stuff).
If you have read the previous books and liked them, this is more of the same. In fact, the plot of this one is slightly more straightforward than the previous ones (less jet-setting, fewer characters to keep track of) which I felt lacked narrative structure. It's a page turner, although partially because you want to find out what horrifying thing Judith might do next; her motivations for her actions aren't always clear and she seems, at times, quite sociopathic.
If you haven't read the previous books, don't start with this one - try out 'Maestra' to see whether the style suits you as it doesn't pull any punches on the sex and violence, which some readers might find distasteful. Personally, I wanted to finish off the trilogy, although I have struggled at times with how unsympathetic all the characters are.
If you have read the previous books and liked them, this is more of the same. In fact, the plot of this one is slightly more straightforward than the previous ones (less jet-setting, fewer characters to keep track of) which I felt lacked narrative structure. It's a page turner, although partially because you want to find out what horrifying thing Judith might do next; her motivations for her actions aren't always clear and she seems, at times, quite sociopathic.
If you haven't read the previous books, don't start with this one - try out 'Maestra' to see whether the style suits you as it doesn't pull any punches on the sex and violence, which some readers might find distasteful. Personally, I wanted to finish off the trilogy, although I have struggled at times with how unsympathetic all the characters are.