Maestra by LS Hilton review – many shades of shocking

The historical biographer’s foray into erotica easily outclasses Fifty Shades but sends the idea of female emancipation back to the 19th century

A couple of years ago, on the day it was announced that EL James’s Fifty Shades of Grey had sold 1m copies in a week, my agent suggested it was time everyone started writing erotica. He was only half-joking. Judging by the slew of Fifty Shades imitators since then, it seems every other literary agent was offering the same advice. According to a recent interview, historical biographer Lisa Hilton’s agent told her the same thing; the result is Maestra, a much-hyped romp through Europe’s billionaire playgrounds billed in its blurb as “the most shocking thriller of the year”.

It is mildly shocking, though not for the reasons the publisher claims. Judith Rashleigh, a lowly assistant at a prestigious auction house, augments her income with night shifts at a hostess bar. After discovering a potential fraud involving a Stubbs painting she’s sacked from the day job, and accepts a trip to the south of France with one of her bar regulars, reluctantly swallowing more than her pride in exchange for expensive gifts. When this arrangement goes disastrously wrong, she heads for Italy, where she picks up the trail of the Stubbs along with more rich men, and figures that if she can’t fellate her way to the top, there’s always murder.

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