Book of Lost Fragrances (Rose)

The Book of Lost Fragrances
M.J. Rose, 2012
Atria Books
384 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781451621488


Summary
Jac L 'Etoile is plunged into a world she thought she’d left behind when her brother, co-heir to their father’s storied French perfumery, makes an earthshattering discovery in the family archives, and then suddenly goes missing— leaving a dead body in his wake.

In Paris to investigate his disappearance, Jac becomes haunted by the legend of the House of L’Etoile. If there is an ancient perfume developed in Cleopatra’s time that holds the power to unlock memories of past lives, possessing it is not only worth living fo...it’s worth killing for, too.

Fusing history, passion and suspense in an intoxicating web that moves from Cleopatra’s Egypt and the terrors of revolutionary France to Tibet’s battle with China and the glamour of modern-day Paris, this marvelous, spellbinding novel comes to life as richly as our most wildly imagined dreams. (From the publisher.)

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Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—New York City, New York, USA
• Education—B.A., Syracuse University
• Currently—lives in Greenwich, Connecticut


M. J. Rose is an American author and book marketing executive. She is a graduate of Syracuse University and spent the 1980's working in advertising, eventually as Creative director of Rosenfeld Sirowitz and Lawson. One of her commercials is featured in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. She lives in Connecticut with the composer Doug Scofield and their dog, Winka.

Rose launched her publishing career in 1998, when she self-published her first novel, Lip Service. When traditional publishers had rejected it—unsure of how to market a book that did not fit into one distinct genre—Rose promoted the book online, setting up a website where readers could download the book. After selling 2500 copies (in digital and paper formats), the book  was chosen by the Literary Guild/Doubleday Book Club and became the first e-book to be subsequently published by a mainstream New York publisher.

Following Lip Service, Rose wrote the thrillers In Fidelity (2001), Flesh Tones (2003), and Sheet Music (2004). Her Butterfield Institute Series introduced protagonist Dr. Morgan Snow, a renowned New York sex therapist, and includes The Halo Effect (2005), The Delilah Complex (2006), and The Venus Fix (2006). In 2006, she also wrote the erotic novel, Lying in Bed.

Rose began a new series focusing on reincarnation and other supernatural phenomena, starting with The Reincarnationist (2007),and continuing with The Memorist (2008), The Hypnotist (2010), and The Book of Lost Fragrances (2012). The Reincarnationist was the inspiration for the Fox TV series "Past Life."

Rose provides book marketing services and consultation to authors through AuthorBuzz.com and runs the popular publishing industry blog, Buzz, Balls & Hype. She co-authored Buzz Your Book with Doug Clegg, which she uses to teach an online book marketing class of the same name.  (From Wikipedia.)

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Book Reviews

M. J. Rose’s multi-stranded plot skillfully hits all the right buttons, blending exotic settings, romance, and paranormal fantasy with political intrigue into a colorful story that would be right at home as a Hollywood thriller.
New York Journal of Books


Ranging from 18th-century Egypt and France to present-day Paris, New York, and China, Rose’s deliciously sensual novel of paranormal suspense smoothly melds a perfume-scented quest to protect an ancient artifact with an ages-spanning romance. When Robbie L’Etoile of the failing House of L’Etoile perfumery discovers, in the family’s Paris workshop, pottery shards holding traces of a perfume that can cause recall of previous lives, he shares his discovery with archeologist Griffin North, an old family friend who’s the ex-lover of Jac, Robbie’s clairvoyant sister and a myth scholar. After exposure to the shards, Jac finds herself balancing visions of the lives of grieving lovers from the past with her own complicated feelings about Griffin. Robbie, a Buddhist, later disappears after the Chinese mafia learns he intends to give the pottery to the Dalai Lama to support the hopes of Tibetans in exile. Rose (The Hypnotist) imbues her characters with rich internal lives in a complex plot that races to a satisfying finish.
Publishers Weekly


The existence of an ancient fragrance from Cleopatra's perfumery rumored to induce memories of past lives has been a family legend of the historic perfume House of L'Etoile for generations.... When Robbie [L'Etoile] discovers ancient Egyptian pottery shards in the family archives, he turns to [his sister] Jac's former lover, archaeologist Griffin North, to help him re-create the lost scent.... Verdict: Rose's fourth volume in the Reincarnationist series (The Reincarnationist; The Memoirist; The Hypnotist) smoothly blends historical events, compelling characters, and international intrigue into an absorbing and thrilling ride through the centuries.  —Joy Gunn, Henderson Libs., NV
Library Journal


Having found shards of an Egyptian perfume pot an ancestor brought home from Egypt in 1799, [Robbie L 'Etoile] convinces archaeologist Griffin...to translate the pot's hieroglyphics. He believes they list the ingredients to a scent that releases memories of former lives and plans to give the information to the Dalai Lama to support the Buddhist belief in reincarnation. .... When Robbie goes missing along with the pottery shards, leaving a dead Chinese Mafioso asphyxiated in his workroom, Jac [his sister] flies to Paris. Soon Griffin is helping her search for Robbie.... Although cynics would say that the convoluted plot is built on coincidence, Rose's characters repeatedly preach that coincidence does not exist; maybe not, but here's proof that claptrap does.
Kirkus Reviews

 

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