This is Sheldon at his best. The story of the Jaime McGregor, a poor Irishman who set sailed for South Africa to make a fortune with diamonds. After being hustled, swindled, almost killed and left for dead he returns as a ghost settling old scores and making his fortune as a diamond merchant. However, that quest doesn't come without consequences of his actions, such as a wife from his enemy and a son that can't survive his ambition. A stroke takes him out, but his wife continues his legacy as she's conceived Kate, Jaime's daughter he'd never grow to see.

Kate is just like her father, ambitious to a fault and will get what she wants by any means necessary. Like her father her quest to keep the next generation in the company tears the family asunder, leaving her in the end without any good prospects for an appropriate heir. Her meddling not only destroys her immediate family, but theirs as well.

This is a roller coaster clusterfuck of first world problems only rich people have, but a guilty pleasure. ( )

There are some who think that Sidney Sheldon is a master but on the basis of this one book, I would not be one of them. Plotting better than writing. Characters one-dimensional. Some suspense, but not enough. ( )

When I was younger, I loved reading Sidney Sheldon’s books. Mostly they are quick reads, fast paced and give glimpses of uber-wealthy. Of course I had read Master of the Game when it came out in ’82, and I have read it multiple times since. It holds up well even if society and social mores have changed, but the main reason I picked it up to re-read was so that I can read the sequel which Mr. Sheldon’s estate gave Tilly Bagshawe the right to write.

Because this book spans multiple generations and centuries Mr Sheldon has some problematic verbiage when describing life in the late 1800s and early 1900s but there is nothing overly gratuitous about it.

All in all this is a great story with loveable and hateable characters, lots of “meat”, angst and psychopathic undertones.

Highly recommend to those who wish to read a right storyline with no unnecessary fluff.

RECOMMEND?
Highly recommend to those who wish to read a right storyline with no unnecessary fluff.

This review appears on my website

Disclaimer
I received via the OverDrive/Libby app from the Harris County Library system. It was read as a Kindle Book.

( )

This book was absolutely terrific. It begins with Jamie McGregor setting out to find his fortune in the S. Aftrcan diamond mines in 1850. He becomes a millionaire and starts a company,Kruger-Brent. The company is left to his daughter, Kate,who turns the company into a multi-national conglomerate. Her son decides to persue art instead of business so Kate must run the company until her twin granddaughters come of age. The girls are as different as night and day and one will do anything to get control of the company. I'm not a Sidney Sheldon fan but I highly reccomend this book. ( )

“Business is a game, played for fantastic stakes, and you're in competition with experts. If you want to win, you have to learn to be a master of the game.”
― Sidney Sheldon, Master of the Game

I grew up as a huge Sheldon fan and I have to say "Master of the game" ranks right up there as the cream of the crop in regards to his works.

Like many of his books, this is pretty long but the pages fly by.

It's a historical family saga and tells the story of Kate Blackwell whom you may not like to much or maybe you will.

Kate is a rich and powerful business executive. As the outline of the book explains she is an "enigma." The woman is a complex puzzle and not many, if any, can say they deeply know her.

On the surface this would seem to be a character study about this woman. But it is so much more than that.

Kate's dad was a diamond prospector who struck it rich. Her mother was the daughter of a crooked merchant. There are ghosts in Kate's past, enemies that need to be dealt with.

And there is much tragedy, personal victories and deeply poignant happenings.

I have read almost all of Sheldon's books and there is no question but that this is one of the heaviest. Don't read this if you are in a bad or sad mood. I mean it. Some of Sheldon's books are fun but light. This book is spellbinding but dark. Very dark.

I absolutely loved this book and loved reading about the diamond prospecting. Jamie was an utterly fascinating character and much of the book has a cultural slant as a great deal of it takes place in Africa.

There was a follow up which was also good but not AS good. This one however is a must read for fans of Historical fiction, family sagas, cultural reads, or all of the above. ( )