In December 1972, a computer expert for a Big Eight accounting firm meets up with her friend and friend''s family in a hotel, and is encouraged to have her palm read by a mysterious fortune teller who warns her that danger lay ahead of her. Catherine Velis, is a musician, painter and has an interest in methematics and
chess, but she is not prepared for the bizarre events that follow the reading - she is given a new assignment in Algeria, an antique dealer approaches her and promises her very generous compensation if she can help him bring back pieces of a very old chess service, rumoured to be in Algeria.
In springtime, 1970, inside the Montglane Abbey, Mireille de Remy and her cousin Valentine are two of the few nuns given the great commission of scattering the pieces of the Montglane Chess Service that was a gift from the King to Charlemagne and was buried within the walls and floors of the fortress - like abbey.
If assembled together, the pieces would give the person responsible great unlimited power. And thus a quest spanning two hundred years begins.
As Mireille and Valentine try their utmost best to scatter the pieces, other powerful forces try to gather them. They can trust no one, and must make rash decisions, putting their lives on the line again and again.
The
plot is thick - Katherine Neville rewrote
history, and every aspect is included.
Ancient legends, Physics and Mathematical discoveries, Political ambition and conquests,
alchemy, in every country around the world - the revolution in France, the war in Russia, all the famous musical composers and many more important people in history. Everything revolves around the symbol and figure EIGHT.
The plot is so thick that it is almost pulpable. The flashbacks are multilayered and absorbing.
It is a must - read for everyone, whether you are a fan of chess, computer lore, ancient history,
music, or even
mathematics.
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