The Count of Monte Cristo is perhaps one of the most alluring and erotic protagonists from literature’s classics. Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo’s author, created a man whose passion for life, love, success, and revenge makes him a master to whom all others bow. His intelligence, cunning, foresight, strategic play, insight, self-respect, and determination are just a few of the many honed skills and talents that allow him, once given the gift of Monte Cristo’s hidden treasure, to become a power before whom others quail in awe, envy, and fear. From this remarkable character and incredible novel springs Colette Gale's Master.

Utilizing much of the original storyline and cast of characters from Dumas’ work, Gale brings the trials and tribulations of Mercedes sharply into focus. Her character is the predominant protagonist whom readers follow without any confusion. Edmond has been dead a good many years now, leaving her alone in the world although she married Fernand about a year and a half after Edmond was taken away. Her marriage hasn't been a happy one; her husband desires men instead of her and forces her into humiliating erotic situations with others he brings to play with. His anger with her at times lead to whippings, and she only ever finds peace in the interims when he is content with another. Her son is her sole reason for staying, and she finds herself involved in pathetic affairs to satiate the loneliness that consumes her. Pride is all she has left.

The Count of Monte Cristo brings the desire, lust, and determination that makes Mercedes crumble. Her heart knows that he is Edmond, but he flatly refuses to confirm it. He is fierce, a predator stalking its prey, as Mercedes continues to antagonize and goad him with all his erotic attempts at breaking her. He wants to get his revenge upon her, and the best way is through the humiliation and torment of her emotions and body. The two former lovers exchange strategic play, and their final match will either break their souls forever or unite them together again as fate intended. The hurt, anger, and inability to forgive may well find these broken souls delivering the final thrust into each other’s heart and taking the lives of a good many innocents along with them.

Gale's gripping and truly erotic tale is non-stop from cover to cover. The use of the characters and theme from The Count of Monte Cristo in this form seems almost absurdly disrespectful to Dumas' original work created, an assessment due mainly to the extreme nature of the eroticism and sexual peccadilloes exhibited by the characters that borders on perversion and the shockingly foul depths to which hatred has scored Gale’s Count. While this is all part of the story and makes the various uniting plots interesting, the tarnishing of one of literature’s classics in this distasteful recreation of a master’s art causes some of the luster to fade from this work’s potential quality.