THE FIRE
Katherine Neville
Ballantine Books
Suspense
Hardcover: 9780345500670
Paperback: 9780345500687
Katherine Neville’s groundbreaking novel, THE EIGHT, dazzled audiences more than twenty years ago and set the literary stage for the epic thriller. A quest for a mystical chess service that once belonged to Charlemagne, it spans two centuries and three continents, and intertwines historic and modern plots, archaeological treasure hunts, esoteric riddles, and puzzles encrypted with clues from the ancient past. Now the electrifying global adventure continues, in Neville’s long anticipated sequel: THE FIRE
2003, Colorado: Alexandra Solarin is summoned home to her family’s ancestral Rocky Mountain hideaway for her mother’s birthday. Thirty years ago, her parents, Cat Velis and Alexander Solarin, believed that they had scattered the pieces of the Montglane Service around the world, burying with them the secrets of the power that comes with possessing it. But Alexandra arrives to find that her mother is missing and that a series of strategically placed clues, followed swiftly by the unexpected arrival of a mysterious assortment of houseguests, indicates that something sinister is afoot.
When she inadvertently discovers from her aunt, the chess grandmaster Lily Rad, that the most powerful piece of Charlemagne’s service has suddenly resurfaced and the Game has begun again, Alexandra is swept into a journey that takes her from Colorado to the Russian wilderness and at last into the heart of her own hometown: Washington D.C.
1822, Albania: Thirty years after the French Revolution, when the chess service was unearthed, all of Europe hovers on the brink of the War of Greek Independence. Ali Pasha, the most powerful ruler in the Ottoman Empire, has angered the sultan and is about to be attacked by Turkish forces. Now he sends the only person he can rely upon --- his young daughter, Haidee --- on a dangerous mission to smuggle a valuable relic out of Albania, through the mountains and over the sea, to the hands of the one man who might be able to save it.
Haidee’s journey from Albania to Morocco to Rome to Greece, and into the very heart of the Game, will result in revelations about the powerful chess set and its history that will lead at last to the spot where the service was first created more than one thousand years before: Baghdad.
Blending exquisite prose and captivating history with nonstop suspense, Neville again weaves an unforgettable story of peril, action, and intrigue.
THE FIRE © Copyright 2009 by Katherine Neville. Reprinted with permission by Ballantine Books. All rights reserved.
Click here now to buy this book from Amazon.com.
Critical Praise
"Fans of THE EIGHT who have long awaited the rest of the story will be delighted with this entrancing blend of history, chess, and high adventure."––– Booklist
"Stellar… Despite the staggering amount and quality of the research, nothing feels shoehorned or extraneous. The story’s relentless pace is matched by characters both sympathetic and real. In the end, readers will be heartened to find signs pointing to the continuation of the Game in future novels."––– Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Twenty years have passed since Neville transfixed readers with her debut novel, THE EIGHT. No one knew how to categorize it; part historical novel, part contemporary thriller, the book became a cult favorite. . . . [In THE FIRE], Neville deftly employs time-shifting storytelling and casts historical figures in her story with such dexterity that you are sure all these people must have really known each other. Ingenious puzzles, enthralling historical ambience, and masterful plot twists abound. More please!"––– Library Journal (starred review)
"THE FIRE by Katherine Neville has got to be one of the best novels I’ve read this year, a masterpiece of riveting suspense, evocative history, exotic international settings, and beautifully crafted characters. THE FIRE is a compulsively readable novel for DA VINCI CODE fans who want to graduate to a real writer, as brilliantly complex as a grand-master chess match. A bravura performance from a major talent, who keeps the excitement at a high pitch from beginning to end. I could not put this book down."––– Douglas Preston, New York Times bestselling author of THE MONSTER OF FLORENCE
"I've been waiting for this book for twenty years... and it still blew me away. Katherine Neville's long-anticipated book, THE FIRE, proves once again that she is the true grandmaster of international intrigue and historical mystery. From the palaces of a lost Arabia to the halls of Washington, D.C., here is a story that twines the past and future into a complex game, played across millennia yet resting on the shoulders of a young woman with a destiny like no other. Relentless, gripping, convoluted, and grand… this is a classic for the new millennium"––– James Rollins, New York Times bestselling author of THE LAST ORACLE
"I’ve been waiting 20 years to find out what happened after THE EIGHT. Katherine Neville answers that longing in a story that skillfully moves players around a global chessboard and expertly blends history, science, myth, and more. Katherine Neville is the undisputed queen of the international suspense genre --- long may she live."––– Steve Berry, author of THE CHARLEMAGNE PURSUIT
"Katherine Neville has a remarkable ability to weave strands of history into one vivid tale. Readers who love culture, travel, and, of course, the detective work of research, will delight in this work."––– Elizabeth Kostova, author of THE HISTORIAN
Click here now to buy this book from Amazon.com.
