Patrick Bateman, Tom Ripley, Dr. Hannibal Lecter: It feels like most literary psychopaths are men, with sex and masculine power sewn into the linings of their bloodstained, perfectly tailored suits.
Sure, you could find their female counterpartsChelsea Cains deeply terrifying Gretchen Lowell comes to mindbut for whatever reason, it seems like there arent that many of them.
EnterMaestra, a sensual, sweat-suffused thriller that begins as the story of Judith Rashleigh, an unassuming gallery assistant in London, and then, faster than the flick of a knife, shifts into a crash course in high fashion, luxury travel, and murders of convenience.
Its the speed of that turn that keepsMaestraengaging throughout, but Judith remains frustratingly distant, and that mires the novel in the realm of macabre wish fulfillment.B
