by M.J. Rose ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2007
An unthrilling thriller from the usually dependable Rose (The Halo Effect, 2004, etc.).
A world-shattering secret, the ire of the Catholic Church, a professor in mortal danger—no, it’s not The Da Vinci Code, but a pallid thriller on the mystery of reincarnation.
After Josh Ryder recovers from an almost fatal head injury, he finds he’s not been left with a neurological disorder (he’s had all the tests) but with a vivid recollection of being a pagan priest in fourth-century Rome. The visions are frightening experiences encroaching on his daily life, and so far the only help he’s gotten comes from the Phoenix Foundation, a New York group devoted to researching reincarnation. Josh and an associate travel on the Foundation’s behalf to Rome, where the tomb of a vestal virgin is being unearthed. The archeologists working the sight, Professors Rudolfo and Chase, have found the fabled memory stones, magic gems that enable the user to see his past lives (though considering the agony Josh experiences, and all the others seeking the Foundation’s help, it seems more a curse than a gift). Visiting the site, Josh has powerful flashbacks to his life as Julius and the tragic end of his lover Sabina, now mummified in the tomb. While Josh is in a tunnel, Rudolfo is shot and the memory stones are stolen, setting off a chain of events that lead Josh and Gabriella Chase (a young, attractive love interest) on a journey to discover the meaning of the stones. Back in New York, Josh is temporarily distracted by Rachel, a jewelry designer who lives with her uncle Alex (also obsessed with the idea of past lives) and is experiencing her own disconcerting episodes in which she is a 19th-century woman in mortal danger. Are Josh, Rachel, Rachel’s boyfriend Harrison, Julius, Sabina (and a few others) all connected? You bet they are, and conveniently they all live in New York. When Gabriella’s daughter is kidnapped by the stones’ new owner, Josh and Gabriella have but a few days to decipher the mantra that makes them work. A predictable “twist” at the end tops off a fairly unremarkable work that takes for granted that reincarnation is as dangerously exotic as the author thinks it is.
An unthrilling thriller from the usually dependable Rose (The Halo Effect, 2004, etc.).Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-7783-2420-1
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2007
Share your opinion of this book
More by Sofia Lundberg
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
edited by M.J. Rose & Fiona Davis
BOOK REVIEW
by M.J. Rose
by Caitlin Mullen ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 3, 2020
A lyrical, incisive, and haunting debut.
In Atlantic City, the bodies of several women wait to be discovered and a young psychic begins having visions of terrible violence.
They are known only as Janes 1 through 6, the women who have been strangled and left in the marsh behind the seedy Sunset Motel. They wait for someone to miss them, to find them. That someone might be Clara, a teenage dropout who works the Atlantic City strip as a psychic and occasionally has visions. She can tell there's something dangerous at work, but she has other problems. To pay the rent, she begins selling her company, and then her body, to older men. One day she meets Lily, another young woman who'd escaped the depressing decay of Atlantic City for New York only to be betrayed by a man. She’s come back to AC because there’s nowhere else to go, and she spends her time working a dead-end job and drinking herself into oblivion. Together, Clara and Lily may be able to figure out the truth—but they will each lose something along the way. Mullen’s style is subtle, flowing; she switches the narrative voice with each chapter, giving us Clara and Lily but also each of the victims. At the heart of the novel lies the bitter observation that “Women get humiliated every day, in small stupid ways and in huge, disastrous ones.” Mullen writes about all the moments that women compromise themselves in the face of male desire and male power and how they learn to use sex as commerce because “men are always promised this, no matter who they are.” The other major character in the novel is Atlantic City itself: fading; falling to ruin; promising an old sort of glamour that no longer exists; swindling sad, lonely people out of their money. This backdrop is unexpected and well rendered.
A lyrical, incisive, and haunting debut.Pub Date: March 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9821-2748-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
Share your opinion of this book
More About This Book
by Lisa Jewell ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 24, 2018
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.
Ten years after her teenage daughter went missing, a mother begins a new relationship only to discover she can't truly move on until she answers lingering questions about the past.
Laurel Mack’s life stopped in many ways the day her 15-year-old daughter, Ellie, left the house to study at the library and never returned. She drifted away from her other two children, Hanna and Jake, and eventually she and her husband, Paul, divorced. Ten years later, Ellie’s remains and her backpack are found, though the police are unable to determine the reasons for her disappearance and death. After Ellie’s funeral, Laurel begins a relationship with Floyd, a man she meets in a cafe. She's disarmed by Floyd’s charm, but when she meets his young daughter, Poppy, Laurel is startled by her resemblance to Ellie. As the novel progresses, Laurel becomes increasingly determined to learn what happened to Ellie, especially after discovering an odd connection between Poppy’s mother and her daughter even as her relationship with Floyd is becoming more serious. Jewell’s (I Found You, 2017, etc.) latest thriller moves at a brisk pace even as she plays with narrative structure: The book is split into three sections, including a first one which alternates chapters between the time of Ellie’s disappearance and the present and a second section that begins as Laurel and Floyd meet. Both of these sections primarily focus on Laurel. In the third section, Jewell alternates narrators and moments in time: The narrator switches to alternating first-person points of view (told by Poppy’s mother and Floyd) interspersed with third-person narration of Ellie’s experiences and Laurel’s discoveries in the present. All of these devices serve to build palpable tension, but the structure also contributes to how deeply disturbing the story becomes. At times, the characters and the emotional core of the events are almost obscured by such quick maneuvering through the weighty plot.
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.Pub Date: April 24, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-5464-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
Share your opinion of this book
More by Lisa Jewell
BOOK REVIEW
by Lisa Jewell
BOOK REVIEW
by Lisa Jewell
BOOK REVIEW
by Lisa Jewell
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.