Publisher’s
write-up:
‘Sixteen-year-old Audrey Armat is a combination of
sugar and steel: Grand Slam contender with a scorched-earth serve and hub of
the nine-million-dollar business that is Audrey Armat Enterprises. She rarely
loses. Luckily.
Professional tennis: high pressure, high profile. But
what is the impact on young players? What happens when the line between privacy
and the public is crossed?
No one knows better than Jordan Myles, former tennis
champion and sports therapist, who works with the top players and aspiring
champions, all drawn to the Desert Springs Sport Science Training Center. Their
goal: achieving the Total Zone, when the mind and body are in perfect harmony
and winning is inevitable.
Audrey Armat comes looking for it but disappears. And
in launching a hunt for her, Jordan uncovers a startling story of abuse, suicide
and murder.’
I bought this
book after looking at the person who wrote it, a person who has lifted a trophy
in Grand Slam tournaments 59 times, Martina Navratilova. For starters, I didn’t
even know that she was also had a crack at writing, that too fiction – based in
the world of tennis. There is a co-author, Liz Nickles, but I am unsure about
the extent of her involvement.
The novel’s
central theme is the life of a sixteen-year-old teenage sensation, Audrey
Armat. The parents of Audrey have absolute control over her life – where she
goes, who she meets, her endorsements, her style of play, her diet; and has
been coached by her father since six. Lately, she has been experiencing a lot
of health problems and that is when she is brought to Jordan Myles, a former
tennis champion (including grand slam tournaments) who now works as a
physiotherapist post a career ending injury. Things don’t go on well between
Jordan and Audrey’s mother, especially when Audrey goes missing and she places
the blame on Jordan and her organisation.
Jordan suspects
extreme abuse on Audrey at the hands of her parents and decides to uncover the
mystery behind her going missing. It was a reasonable premise that the author
had and yes, she is someone who knows entirely as to how the system works – who
are the persons involved, to what extent sponsors and endorsements have a role,
the role of administrators and the games that they play. Jordan had quite the
adventure, stretching from New York to California to Florida and then on to the
UK (for Wimbledon) with public perception going increasingly against her
following the lawsuit from Audrey’s mother.
However, the
author’s only effort had been to try and build the character of Jordan Myles –
as to who she was, her past, her planned future and what she believes in and
what drives her. Barring her, no other character was built with such care – be it
her colleague Gus, or the detective who helped her – Fish, her journalist
friend Cas or even that of Audrey. Very often, reading her book felt like
reading a tennis’ players journal – when she described how to play a particular
shot or about achieving the ‘total zone’ – that is perfect mind and body
harmony while playing.
The plot was
loose, and begins to unfold very late, after a very slow introduction. I felt a
lot of pages in this whole book was unnecessary, such as the entire Wimbledon
saga. However, I did like the part that the author did not try to make herself
the protagonist even though she brought a character similar to her into the
book – a character named Mariska from Eastern Europe who had defected to the
United States. I am sure that the author is more qualified to comment on the
situation at Wimbledon than I am but I would say this that by reading this
book, one might come to the conclusion that being a tennis player at Wimbledon
is possibly one of the most dangerous things that a person could do.
This was a
thriller novel which had a reasonable premise from an author who could very
much put herself in the shoes of the characters but the narration was totally
botched up, with uninspiring writing and while she thought of writing a rather
gross climax, it just turned out weird and creepy.
I did not enjoy
reading this book and in fact, took quite some time to complete it and on that
note, I award this book a rating of three on ten.
Rating
– 3/10
Have
a nice day,
Andy
Andy
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