Cryptic crossword clue
Novella in which king and knight briefly appear 5,2,8

The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 5 plus 2 plus 8 letter word HEART OF DARKNESS

I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
H
E
A
R
T
O
F
D
A
R
K
N
E
S
S

Buddy explains!

The straight part
We know that "Novella" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case novella = heart of darkness.
The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.
This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.

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