North, Claire Gameshouse. #bk. 1

Read by Peter Kenny

In this adventure novel set in 17th-century Venice, one brave woman dares to compete in the higher league of a mysterious establishment known as the Gamehouse. There, fortunes are made and fortunes are broken over games of chess, backgammon and every other game under the sun. But those whom fortune favours may be invited to compete in the higher league . . . a league where the games played are of politics and empires, of economics and kings. It is a league where Capture the Castle involves real castles, where hide and seek takes place on a scale as big as the British Isles. Not everyone proves worthy of competing in the higher league. But one woman, who is about to play, may just exceed everyone's expectations. Though she must always remember: the higher the stakes, the more deadly the rules . . . Claire North is a pseudonym for Catherine Webb, a Carnegie Medal-nominated author whose first book was written when she was just fourteen years old. She went on to write several other novels in various genres, before publishing her first major work as Claire North, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, in 2014. It was a critically acclaimed success, receiving rave reviews and an Audie nomination, and was included in the Washington Post's Best Books of the Year list. Her next novel, Touch, was also in the Washington Post's Best Books of the Year, in 2015. Catherine currently works as a theatre lighting designer and is a fan of big cities, urban magic, Thai food and graffiti-spotting. She lives in London. "An astonishing re-invention of the time travel narrative. Bold, magical and masterful."-Mike Carey, on The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

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