Book Reviewed by oceania
3 a novel by Julie Hilden
Published by Plume
ISBN: 0-452-28443-0
rating: ***

3, by Julie Hilden, is an erotic murder mystery full of twist and turns. It is an intimate look inside a woman not yet her own person. It is a book of discovery, sacrifices, obsessive, co-dependent behaviors and evolution.

In this book, Ms. Hilden touches so many places - so deeply at times É that you can almost hear the fear, wants and desires of the characters. Yet I found the story equally disturbing in what it leaves out. There is a distance, an almost purposefulness to the hiding of essential elements as though pieces of Ms Hilden herself were hiding not to be shared.

Unlike many erotic thrillers the sex is exhilarating, not gratuitous. There are no car chases.. no she was a 36-24-36 blue eyed blonde porn story. The main character of this novel, Maya, grows before our eyes, her struggles with identity, love and need all intricately wrapped, layered, presented in full view bite size pieces so that the reader feels that they getting to know her like one would a real person.

This is more than a sexy thriller, it is a life journey that many women may find a parallel and asks the question "Is the loss of identity or the finding of one's destiny the greater sacrifice one can make for love?"

About the author: Julie Hilden graduated from Harvard, earned her law degree from Yale, and an MA in creative writing from Cornell. She lives in NYC and writes full time.