Katherine Neville: The Eight

Katherine Neville

The Eight

Christina says:

New Year’s Eve 1972. A strange fortune-teller warns computer expert Catherine Velis of dangers looming ahead. Her boss is sending her to Algeria on an assignment for OPEC. Her friend Harry’s brother-in-law asks her to purchase some pieces of a very old chess service for him. Before she leaves New York somebody tries to shoot her and two people die. Then she is alone in Algiers, pursued by Sharif, the head of the secret service, and involved in a game she only just begins to understand.

Spring 1792. In the turmoils following the French Revolution the Abbess of Montglane has her nuns dig up Charlemagne’s chess service hidden in her abbey for more than 1000 years. To prevent the service and it’s hidden formula from falling into the hands of the new rulers she spreads the pieces all over Europe with her nuns. She herself seeks refuge in Russia at the court of Catherine the Great. In case they can’t protect the pieces the nuns are to turn to cousins Mireille and Valentine who are sent to their guardian in Paris. Valentine is murdered by revolutionary Marat because he wants the pieces for himself. They are rumored to be a source of great power. Mireille sets out to unite the pieces and take revenge.

Katherine Neville’s mystery was hailed as the female counterpart of Umberto Eco’s THE NAME OF THE ROSE. That it is not. In the first half of the book the story lacks drive because Neville keeps jumping between the two narratives without actually building suspense. The interruptions are rather irritating. As far as style is concerned Neville and Eco are worlds apart. The historical part resembles a Who-is-Who of the French Revolution. Neville doesn’t shy away from using historical figures like Talleyrand, Catherine the Great and the Bonaparte family as minor or even major characters. That’s not always believable. The name dropping continues in the modern part, but here the celebrities only make short cameos. As Catherine’s hunt for the chess pieces commences the story picks up a bit, even if Neville wears out the reader’s credulity pretty fast by having Catherine and her friend Lily Rad chase around a muslim country on their own.

Neville cleverly ties the chess service into myths from all kinds of cultures and thereby makes up for her slightly overblown and dull cast of characters. In the beginning I was still wondering who was on which side, but both the good and the bad guys and girls fail to inspire and surprising twists are rare.

THE EIGHT is an ok mystery. You don’t have to be a chess master to follow the story, and too profound knowledge of history spoils the pleasure instead of enhancing it. But after all the book was interesting enough to keep me reading for more than 600 pages, and that’s not the worst thing that can be said about a book.

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Christina Gross

Last changes: 02/09/03