My review of The Reincarnationist, by M. J. Rose, is published today at the Philadelphia Inquirer. My thanks, as ever, to Frank Wilson, Sir Galahad of the Blogosphere, for so kindly asking me to review the book.
At the start of my review, I compared The Reincarnationist to Coma, by Robin Cook, an immensely successful 1970s thriller in which the author had the then-original idea of mixing key ingredients from the bestseller lists to create a genre-busting roller-coaster, but with a serious message. Here is a little bit of the unedited version of my review containing the comparisons that didn't make it into the paper: "The novel opens when Josh Ryder, a photojournalist, is injured during a terrorist attack. Reminiscent of Stephen King’s thrilling The Dead Zone (in which a coma patient awakens to find he has second sight), while Josh is unconscious he “is” Julius, a pagan Roman living in 391 AD, guarding the vestal virgins from the emperor’s soldiers, who are cruelly enforcing the Christian religion – a type of muscular religious conflict featured in The Jester, one of James Patterson’s bestsellers."
One comparison that did make it to the published review is with The Da Vinci Code, a book which shares many themes with The Reincarnationist. I'd suggest that if you liked DVC, you may well like The Reincarnationist (neither DVC nor the Reincarnationist had the serious message that underlaid Cook's novel, however). But if you didn't, you might wish to give this one a miss. Here's the last paragraph of my review: "Like Robin Cook, M. J. Rose has a superb instinct for marketing. She is, rightly, a widely admired figure among authors for all the marketing and publishing advice she freely provides. The Reincarnationist is written by someone with a great grasp of what sells. For me, however, it was neither absorbing nor exciting."
Excellent review, Maxine.
Posted by: Debra Hamel | 21 November 2007 at 00:29