The Eight: A Novel [Paperback]

Computer expert Cat Velis is heading for a job to Algeria. Before she goes, a mysterious fortune teller warns her of danger, and an antique dealer asks her to search for pieces to a valuable chess set that has been missing for years...In the South of France in 1790 two convent girls hide valuable pieces of a chess set all over the world, because the game that can be played with them is too powerful....“Readers thrilled byThe Da Vinci Codewill relish the multi-layered secrets ofThe Eight.”
—MATTHEW PEARL, author ofThe Dante Club

“A BIG, RICH, TWO-TIERED CONFECTION OF A NOVEL . . .
A ROUSING, AMUSING GAME.”
—San Francisco Chronicle

“A fascinating piece of entertainment that manages to be both vibrant and cerebral . . . Few will find it resistible.”
—Los Angeles Times Book Review

“With alchemical skill, Neville blends modern romance, historical fiction, and medieval mystery . . . and comes up with gold.”
—People
Katherine Nevilleis the author of The Eight, The Magic Circle (a USA Today bestseller), and A Calculated Risk (a New York Times Notable Book).The Eighthas been translated into more than thirty languages. In a national poll in Spain by the noted journalEl País,The Eightwas voted one of the top ten books of all time. Neville lives in Virginia and Washington, D.C.THE DEFENSE


Characters tend to be either for or against the quest. If they assist it, they are idealized as simply gallant or pure; if they obstruct it, they are characterized as simply villainous or cowardly. Hence every typical character . . . tends to have his moral opposite confronting him, like black and white pieces in a chess game.
–Anatomy of Criticism,Northrop Frye



Montglane Abbey, Francló,