The Frame

by Katherine Neville

Computer expert Catherine is hired to go to Morocco to work for OPEC (it’s set in the early 1970s); little does she know that her presence there has actually been orchestrated as part of a huge, on-going game of chess that has been going on since the reign of Charlemagne – a game in which the players are seeking a chess service made for Charlemagne that contains a secret too powerful to let it fall into the wrong hands. In a parallel story, two nuns try to keep the service safe during the French Revolution, ending up intimately involved in the political intrigue of the time. The story is reminiscent of The Da Vinci Code (which is name-checked on the cover of the newest edition), but it’s actually, I don’t know, well-written and, I don’t know, historically pretty accurate. It changes a couple of French Revolution events in order to involve our nuns, but nothing serious. I had great fun actually recognizing all the people the book mentions from my European Romanticism class! :) The secret the service is hiding is a bit of a letdown after all the conniving that went on to get it, but the ride to get there was so much fun that I’m not complaining.
Well Above Average