The Game of 30 — William Kotzwinkle

"A suspense novel to rank with the classics." Stephen King

Streetwise PI Jimmy McShane has seen plenty, but he's never seen anything like the murder of Tommy Rennseler. A wealthy antiques dealer with a passion for Egyptian artifacts, Rennseler was killed like an ancient Egyptian: injected with cobra venom and ritually disembowelled. When he's hired by the dead man's daughter, McShane realizes that he's never seen anything like Temple Rennseler, either. She's beautiful, exotic and -  obsessed with the Game of 30, a centuries-old form of chess that - perhaps - foretells the future. As McShane gets closer to the killer, he finds himself trapped in a more deadly game, with Manhattan as the gameboard.