Krishna
The blurb says ythat this is like Dan Brown novels – The Da Vinci Code for instance. Do not believe it for an instant. It is nothing like it. It is a lightweight story. Interesting? Yes. In the class of Dan Brown? Definitely not.
The story starts in the eighteenth century where two novices who are cousins have been orphaned and sent to an abbey – Montglare Abbey – for protection. Mireille de Remy, the redhead, is the subdued one and Valentine, the blond, the slightly wilder one. They are not overly interested in life as a possible abbess and are glad that they are not yet ordained, being novices still.
Charlemagne was the architect of the abbey. All the nuns and novices were called into the Reverend Mother’s chambers, an unusual incident. There they meet two nuns who traveled incognito. The nuns, Alexandrine and Charlotte, bring tidings of mayhem in Paris (the French revolution) which portend anarchy, possible regicide and other unbelievable things happening in their country. She talks about the evil man of the cloth, Bishop of Autun, who Rome believes to be the Devil Incarnate.
They say that the Bishop should not have a treasure at any cost. Then the Mother tells an old story: In Charlamagne’s time, there was a celebration of his fortieth birthday. He brings out a chessboard and jewel encrusted pieces to play with the champion called Garin and inexplicably wagers half his kingdom and his daughter if he should lose; but Garin to be beheaded in the morning if he, Charlamagne, won. He seems to be in a trance as the play proceeds. Then he shakes himself free and when Garin plays and wins, he gives him land which became the monastery of Montglan, the one where the two nuns came from. The board was hidden and now the Mother sends it in eight pieces with different nuns, and the two girls have been entrusted with one piece to take it to a central piece with their benefactor. The other pieces’ locations are to remain a secret from each other – except the Reverend Mother knew them all.
The scene shifts now to New York of 1972. A girl, Catherine Velis, wants to escape the New Year celebrations and runs off to a computer site where she used to work. She refused to falsify accounts even upon the request from a senior partner of the consultancy company. So she is moving to Algeria and on a New Year’s Eve party her family friend asks her to come see a fortune teller. That woman identifies Velis as the ‘one who has been foretold’ and talks about the fourth day of the fourth month (the birthday of Velis, who is surprised but does not let on). Meanwhile, Harry’s relation Blanche asks her to bring back a chess piece from Algeria when he returns – yes, you guessed it, one of the pieces of the magic set. A collector is, according to Blanche’ interested in collecting all the pieces.
Back to the old times. Valentina and Mireille meet a young Maurice, who is a lecherous young man but is a bishop of Autuun. They meet him when they were posing semi nude for a painting by their patron, David.
The author is fond of bringing real life historical figures into this lightweight story. (‘Lightweight?’, you ask. Yes, lightweight. Most people behave as in the characters of a children’s storybook). First it is Germaine de Stael, who was a woman during Napoleon’s time. Then comes Voltaire. Germaine de Stael here has nothing at all to do with the real de Stael. Her biography has been reviewed before.
Madame de Stael escorts Valentine and Mariel to a play which is perhaps too adult (for those times) and then Tellyrand (Maurice) who tells them his story when he went to a graveyard when he was very young and met a ghost – a ghost of none other than Richelieu. The ghost directs him to Voltaire, who tells him of a mystery of a chess set. Go figure.
Meanwhile, in modern times, Lily, the chess-crazed daughter of Harry, takes her to a chess tournament where she wants to watch rival players – especially an eccentric Russian called Solarin and an equally eccentric opponent called Fiske.
Before the tournament, Solarin meets her, seems to recognize her, and warns her off the premises since she is ‘in grave danger there’. Though shocked at the resemblance of the man to her fortune teller, Catherine dismisses it and stays on through the tournament with Lily. There Fiske plays erratically and Solarin correctly guesses that Fiske is wired and is probably being instructed to throw the game. He stops the clock and meets Fiske in the bathroom, away from any prying eyes, after instructing his bodyguard, Gogol, not to interfere and give him some time to sort things out.
When he understands that Fiske is wired, he removes the bug and then goes out only to hear that Fiske had hung himself. (He was forced to use the instructions to win the game against Solarin because Solarin had promised ‘the formula’ to the first guy who could beat him).
Lily and Catherine go to their car and flee after realizing that someone was either shooting at them or shooting near them to scare them away.
Old times: The abbess, Helene de Roque goes to Russia to meet her childhood friend Sophia. Only now she is called Catherine the Great, and is mourning the death of her commander Count Potemkin who helped her overthrow her husband the czar and expand Russia to unprecedented extent. Catherine gets a piece of the set from the abbess and tells her the story of her visit to Frederick the Great’s court and how she got Leonhard Euler to help her in her battle against the Freemasons who were trying to overthrow the monarchy everywhere.
Helene refuses to help Catherine and shows her proof that she is protected by God. Her hand has the lines crossing each other, forming the number 8.
Meanwhile in the present, Cat goes searching for a man whom she found on the street and who had a striking resemblance to a painting by her. She meets Solarin, who again warns her to stay away from danger. When later she goes into a house, she sees the chauffeur’s body.
When Valentine and Mirabel are captured and they try to behead Valentine, Mirabel puts her body in between – the background is the French revolution where they are killing priests, nun and all nobility. Before she dies, she blurts out the location of the chess pieces to the crazed revolutionaries, the leader of whom is also searching for the magical chess pieces.
Meanwhile Philidor, a musician and chess expert is telling David his story where he heard of – yes – the chess pieces from Euler.
Madame Germain de Stael is almost killed when she tries to travel to her home country and is saved only because she is seen by a hero of the revolution. And Mireille meets the Bonaparte family, the young Napoleon, his sister Eliza and mother Letiza, who is a close friend of the abbess.
The current time, Cat goes to Algeria and the minister Kemal meets her against her wildest expectations and signs the contract. Her boss was refused visa.
Mireille meanwhile goes across the Sahara with a bedouin guide who teacher her how to capture and tame a falcon. This is essential to find food in the barren waste of the largest desert in the world. Mireille gives birth in the presence of stone figures but is called back to France by Sister Agnes(?). Confusing, right?
Marille then manages to connect with her kid, who can see the future. He warns Napolean not to continue his wars but is ignored. They meet Fourier in Egypt. The author is fond of bringing in historical figures (Benedict Arnold, Catherine the Great’s son Paul and grandson Alexander and many others) but they all seem to be intent on getting the Montglane pieces.
Meanwhile Cat and Solarin hookup. They, with Lily, figure out that the formula is one of alchemy.
There is an end piece where the black and white teams meet and thrash it out. By the way the ‘good’ team is black team and the evil team is white. The white team includes Harry’s wife (The White Queen) while Harry himself is Black King. Their daughter Lily is on the black side.
Further surprises abound – but they are minor surprises. Nim and Solarin are brothers, and Solarin and Cat hook up. Cat has now the mantle of the Black Queen from Solarin’s grandmother Minnie who has retired from the game. There is a final surprise about Minnie at the very end.
Lots of historical figures but no reality. There is a nod to the historical accuracy – Napolean’s rise and defeat but otherwise in historical reality, this is all blather.
But entertaining, so a 6/10
– – Krishna (December 2019)