Book Review: The Hypnotist

Title: The Hypnotist
Author: M.J. Rose
Paperback: 416 pages
Publisher: Mira; Original edition (April 19, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0778329208
ISBN-13: 978-0778329206

I had originally posted a feature with some of this information when the hardcover book came out and am reposting with the release of the paperback. I hope you will get a copy of all three books in this series.






Book Synopsis from the publisher:
An FBI agent, tormented by a death he wasn't able to prevent, a crime he's never been able to solve and a love he's never forgotten, discovers that his true conflict resides not in his past, but in a…Past Life.

Haunted by a twenty-year old murder of a beautiful young painter, Lucian Glass keeps his demons at bay through his fascinating work as a Special Agent with the FBI's Art Crime Team. Currently investigating a crazed art collector who has begun destroying prized masterworks, Glass is thrust into a bizarre hostage negotiation that takes him undercover at the Phoenix Foundation—dedicated to the science of past life study—where, in order to maintain his cover, he agrees to submit to the treatment of a hypnotist.

Under hypnosis, Glass travels from ancient Greece to 19th century Persia, while the case takes him from New York to Paris and the movie capital of world. These journeys will change his very understanding of reality, lead him to question his own sanity and land him at the center of perhaps the most audacious art heist in history: the theft of a 1,500 year old sculpture from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

International bestselling author M. J. Rose's The Hynpotist is her most mesmerizing novel yet. An adventure, a love story, a clash of cultures, a spiritual quest, it is above all a thrilling capstone to her unique Reincarnation novels, The Reincarnationist and The Memorist.

Reading Group Guide:
On the first page of this novel is a quote:
Often, in the cosseted quarters of a museum, we forget that every work of ancient art is a survivor, a representative of untold numbers of similar artworks that perished. This triumphant exhibition makes us remember, while demonstrating that every survivor saves much more than just itself: long strands of culture, identity and history waiting to be woven back together. – Roberta Smith writing in the New York Times about the exhibit: Silent Survivors of Afghanistan’s 4,000 Tumultuous Years

How do you think that quote relates to both the theme of this book and the subject of reincarnation?

Who do you think does own art? Should the cultural heritage of a piece of artwork determine what museum it finally winds up in? Should the Metropolitan museum have returned Hypnos to Greece? To Iran?

The main characters in the book – Lucian and Emeline are both faced with choices between art and personal life. What are some of these dilemmas, and how does each character resolve or at least experience them?

How does the myth of Hypnos, the Greek God of Sleep, figure into the story and how does the author use that myth to mirror the novel’s plot.

The author Laurie R. King says that the Rose has told a story built on the idea that saving love is indistinguishable from saving the world. How does that theme show itself and how does it resolve itself?


About the Author:
M.J. Rose, is the international bestselling author of 11 novels;Lip Service, In Fidelity, Flesh Tones, Sheet Music, Lying in Bed, The Halo Effect, The Delilah Complex, The Venus Fix,The Reincarnationist, The Memorist and The Hypnotist.

Rose is also the co-author with Angela Adair Hoy of How to Publish and Promote Online, and with Doug Clegg of Buzz Your Book.

She is a founding member and board member of International Thriller Writers and the founder of the first marketing company for authors: AuthorBuzz.com. She runs two popular blogs; Buzz, Balls & Hype and Backstory.

Getting published has been an adventure for Rose who self-published Lip Service late in 1998 after several traditional publishers turned it down. Editors had loved it, but didn't know how to position it or market it since it didn't fit into any one genre.

Frustrated, but curious and convinced that there was a readership for her work, she set up a web site where readers could download her book for $9.95 and began to seriously market the novel on the Internet.

After selling over 2500 copies (in both electronic and trade paper format) Lip Service became the first e-book and the first self-published novel chosen by the LiteraryGuild/Doubleday Book Club as well as being the first e-book to go on to be published by a mainstream New York publishing house.

Rose has been profiled in Time magazine, Forbes, The New York Times, Business 2.0, Working Woman, Newsweek and New York Magazine.

Rose has appeared on The Today Show, Fox News, The Jim Lehrer NewsHour, and features on her have appeared in dozens of magazines and newspapers in the U.S. and abroad, including USAToday, Stern, L'Official, Poets and Writers and Publishers Weekly.

Rose graduated from Syracuse University and spent the '80s in advertising. She was the Creative Director of Rosenfeld Sirowitz and Lawson and she has a commercial in the Museum of Modern Art in NYC.

She lives in Connecticut with Doug Scofield, a composer, and their very spoiled dog, Winka.

Check out the author's site at:
www.mjrose.com



My review:
I seem to be someone that really enjoys reading books in a series and am once again promoting one to my readers. I often get antsy waiting for the next book and frequently read them again each time a new installment is published and then once again through the entire series once it is finished. I know...I am a bit of a book nerd. However, you will want to get this entire series and since you don't have to wait for the next installment, I think many will even re-read just because it is so good.

The book contains the supernatural, mystery, romance, and history and wraps the reader up into a world that is so fantastic that the reader wants to become a part of it. A haunting theme underlies the suspense thriller of it all and you just can't get a much better written book and story line in this genre. You can read this book alone and not miss out from not reading the first two. However, you will not want to do that as you will crave more than just one book from MJ Rose in this series.