This is a smart, authentic novel that aims to be a thriller but isn't quite at that pace. The main character, Jane, is a woman who has just been named interim CEO of an arts organization that hosts a celebrated film festival. She was given the job because her former boss has been brought down for sexual harassment, and her board chair, who had protected the harasser, wants to see her fail. Just as the festival kicks off, the woman's longtime lover, a funds manager who was supposed to accompany her to the festival disappears.
The novel includes many interesting side stories, including China wanting to stop her from airing a film they feel is critical of their regime, a big donor who is creepy and handsy trying to sleep with/assault her, her ex-husband turning out to be the brother of her current lover, her bodyguard being a former member of the Assad, strange women popping up to interrogate her, and so on. While all of this does sound like it would add up to thriller-level, the story is too behind-the-scenes real to quite get there. Jane is amazing, but human. What is happening to Jane is sometimes shocking but so is much of what happens to women at every level. And there are just too many storylines being woven together, all of them dealing with complex social issues, for me to be hanging on the edge of my seat. It was a good read but it dragged a little bit in the middle.
We are given an insider's view of what it's like to have to give speeches, court donors, juggle board members, and keep an event with hundreds of moving pieces in motion. As a reader, I trusted absolutely that the author knew what she was talking about, and reading her back story afterward, I see she did formerly run a film festival, which is not a surprise. I loved Jane's gutsiness and confidence, but just as the title is a bit "inside," being a term for a screenplay direction, so is the whole book, which left me feeling a little left out.
Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for providing me with a free audio copy in exchange for my honest review.