Sidney Sheldon's Mistress of the Game

Sidney Sheldon's
Mistress of the Game

First edition
Author	Sidney Sheldon Tilly Bagshawe
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Thriller
Publisher	William Morrow
Publication date	August 4, 2009
Media type	Print (Hardback)
Pages	336
ISBN	0-06-172838-1
Preceded by	Master of the Game
Followed by	Sidney Sheldon's After the Darkness

Sidney Sheldon's Mistress of the Game is a 2009 novel by Tilly Bagshawe.^[1] It is the sequel to Sidney Sheldon's critically acclaimed 1982 novel Master of the Game, which had debuted at number one on the New York Times Bestseller List^[2] and was later adapted into a 1984 television miniseries.^[3][4] Mistress of the Game continues the story of the powerful Blackwell family as the lifelong conflict between twins Eve and Alexandra extends to their children.^[1]

Plot

Kate Blackwell has died and left the company in the hands of her granddaughters, Eve Blackwell-Webster and Alexandra Blackwell-Templeton, who are both pregnant. Eve secretly vows revenge against her husband Keith, who deliberately destroyed her face during a plastic surgery procedure so she would never leave him, and Alexandra's family, who she believes ruined her plan to acquire total control of the family company, Kruger-Brent Ltd. Weeks later, Alexandra hemorrhages giving birth to Alexandra "Lexi" Templeton, while Eve painstakingly gives birth to a son named Max. While Lexi grows up showered with love from everyone in her household, Max is raised by his mother to hate his cousins and his father and to aim for total control of Kruger-Brent Ltd. one day.

On their joint eighteen birthday, Max makes it clear to Lexi that he hates her after she easily wins over Kruger-Brent's board members despite his attempts to charm them, and vows to make the company all his. Lexi's older brother, Robbie, is a successful pianist and wants nothing to do with the company and gives his share to Lexi. With Lexi standing to gain 2/3 control of the company when she turns twenty-five, Eve sends Max to seduce her, and they slowly form a romantic relationship. Lexi lets her guard down and willingly gives him the code to her safe, where he finds a memory card filled with racy pictures from her college days and leaks it to the public. The board members unanimously agree to terminate Lexi from Kruger-Brent for her bad publicity, giving full control to Max. However, after a year, Lexi's new company "Templeton" restores her professional reputation and outshines Kruger-Brent, which is failing due to Max's unsteady control.

When Lexi opens a branch of her company in Africa, her company comes into conflict with Phoenix Industries, owned by her distant relative, Gabriel McGregor. Although initially attracted to him, Lexi does not pursue him after knowing that he has a family, and is content to be business partners with him. However, after his family is murdered, Lexi consoles him during his depression and they slowly form a relationship. Gabriel begs her to let go of her obsession of taking back Kruger-Brent as they have enough to be happy about, but although she promises to, she does not give up. She destroys Kruger-Brent by buying off most of its companies, secretly stealing from Gabriel's charity fund to fund her plan. Eventually, Kruger-Brent goes bankrupt and Max commits suicide. The Kruger-Brent board members agree to sell Kruger-Brent, and are surprised when Lexi buys it and restores the company back to its power. She learns that she is pregnant and is about to tell Gabriel the good news, but he angrily breaks up with her after finding out about his charity fund before she can reveal the good news. They eventually reconcile when Gabriel finds out about her pregnancy and he realizes that he loves her and stops her from aborting, and they marry after their daughter Maxine is born.

Meanwhile, Eve is on her deathbed, hallucinating the ghosts of people in her past. She sends a threatening note to Lexi admitting that she knows what she did and has sent another note to the police. The police take Lexi to the police station after her wedding, but Gabriel, Robbie, and two of their loyal servants help her escape to her villa in Maldives, where the police have no jurisdiction, and she is reunited with Gabriel and Maxine. Lexi is hopeful for future knowing that, unlike Eve, she can still play the game.

References