The Thousand
Books / Hardcover
Books › Fiction › Mystery & Detective › Historical
ISBN: 1400043093 / Publisher: Knopf, August 2010
A follow-up to Cast of Shadows is set in 500 B.C. coastal Italy, where the arrival of Pythagoras triggers revolutionary changes in science and philosophy that influence the modern-world life of a murdered composer's daughter.
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"Kevin Guilfoile's riveting new novel defies pigeonholing. Part thriller, part dystopian science fiction, The thousand takes the reader on a spine-tingling ride from Las Vegas to Chicago, from ancient Greece to modern America. With a painstakingly constructed conspiracy based on followers of Pythagoras, The Thousand is the story, above all, of a young woman's efforts to tell truth from lies as a network of powerful people tries to use her for its own gain. If you're like me, you'll stay up all night until all the pieces fall into place."---Sara Paretsky, author of Hardball"Part thught-provoking mystery, part flat-out thriller, The Tousand is superb. Kevin Guilfoile's second novel is every bit as inventive---Umberto Eco meets Stan Lee---and well crafted as his first, which is saying something. Guilfoile patiently develops an array of unique characters and adroitly weaves them into a provocative, relentless labyrinth of a story. It's a rare treat---a book to savor, contemplate, and admire." ---Stephen White, author of The Stege"Kevin Guilfoile is a writer of stunning talent."---James Rollins, author of The Doomsday KeyKevin Guilfoile is a terrific new novelist with guts, brains, wit, and imagination... Guilfoile is a bright new star in the crime fiction universe, but so much more than that."---C.J. Box, Edgar Award winner and author of Bellow ZeroKevin Guilfoile's rivering follow-up to Cast of Shadows ("spellbinding"---Chicago Tribune; "a masterpiece of intelligent plotting"---Slon) centers on an extraordinary young wonman's race to find her Father's killer and to free herself from the cross fire of a centuries-old civil war in which she has unknowingly become ensnared.In 530 B.C., a mysterious ship appeared off the rainy shores of Croton, in what is now Italy. After thre days the skies finally cleared and a man disembarded to address the curious and frightened crowd that had gathered along the wet sands. He called himself Pythagoras. Exactly what he said that day is unknown, but a thousand men and women abandoned their lives and families to follow him. they became a community. A school. A cult dedicated to the search for a mathematical theory of everything. Although Pythagoras would die years later, following a bloody purge, his disciples would influence Western philosophy, science, and mathematics for all time.Chicago, the present day. Canada Gold, a girl both gifted and burdened by uncanny mental abilities, is putting her skills to questionable use in the casinos and courthouses of Las Vegas when she finds herself drawn back to the city in which her father, the renowned coposer Solomon Gold, was killed while composing his magnum opus. Beautiful, brilliant, troubled, Canada has never heard of the Thousand, a clandestine group of powerful individuals safeguarding and exploiting the secret teachings of Pythagoras. But as she struggles to understand her father's unsolved murder, she finds herself caught in the violence erupting between members of the fractured ancient cult while she is relentlessly pursued by those who want to use her those who want to kill her, and the one person who wants to save her.BR>In an irresistibly ambitious novel that fuses historical fact with contemporary suspense, Kevin Guilfoile delivers an erudite, propulsively entertaining thriller that seamlessly traverses the realms of math, science, music, and philosophy. the Thousand is ringing confirmation of Guilfoile's enormous talent.
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