The Collector of Dying Breaths by M. J. Rose

"I almost died because a criminal with a gun shot at you and I pushed you out of the way and was hurt. Jac, please." He put his hand on her shoulders and pulled her toward him so she was twisted around, facing him again. "You can't throw us away because of something you don't even believe yourself."

~~~Posted for That's What HE Said Thursday

Title: The Collector of Dying Breaths
Author: M.J. Rose
ISBN: 9781451621532
Publisher: Atria Books/2014
Pages: 384

This is the sixth book in Reincarnationist series and the third one featuring Jac L’Etoile. I have read the first, The Book of Lost Fragrances. I am yet to pick up the second one, Seduction.

This novel is set in two different time periods, one contemporary and other historical, set in the sixteenth century where René le Florentin is a young apprentice in an Italian monastery. He is wrongly accused of poisoning his master, apothecary Dom Serapino. Catherine de Medici saves him and takes him along to France as she is about to marry into the French royality. René is a now a perfumer to the French court. His knowledge of fragrances, potions and poisons makes him valuable for Catherine. She makes use of his knowledge to eliminate enemies of the state. Meanwhile, René continues to work on a secret project of collecting a person’s dying breath. He thinks that if he discovers the right combination of ingredients to mix with the dying breath, then the resulting mixture can  bring back the soul. However, his knowledge of poisons has disastrous consequences on his personal life....

Coming to present day France, Jac L’Etoile's brother Robby dies and he had been working collecting dying breaths. L’Etoiles are a family of perfumers. Jac has always stayed away from creating perfumes because certain scents bring back vivid memories of the past – not just her own but other people’s too. When a rich and eccentric woman, Melinoe Cypros asks her to continue with the work of Robby (which is René le Florentin's work), Jac agrees. Working for it, Jac finds herself haunted by visions of  René le Florentin and the woman he loves.

The historical parts were well developed and were very compelling. Catherine de Medici was portrayed well and I liked the interactions between Catherine, Rene and Ruggieri, Catherine's astrologer. Jac is able to see her past life and somehow can connect to her present day lover, Griffin North to René le Florentin, she being the woman he had loved. This works well as a standalone novel and the suspense element remains intact throughout. 

Book Beginnings: The Sekhmet Bed by L. M. Ironside

Book Beginnings on Fridays hosted by Rose City Reader, where bloggers share the first sentence or more of a current read, as well as initial thoughts about the sentence(s), impressions of the book, or anything else that the opening inspires.

Mother of the Pharaoh.

The voice was rich, black.  Ahmose saw nothing but a river of stars.

Mother of the Pharaoh, why do you weep?

She reached out her arms, as she had as a child.  Comfort was what she wanted.  Reassurance, her nurse’s embrace, a sweet cake to soothe her.  Her face prickled with the salt of her tears.

Mother of the Pharaoh, rise up.  Come to me.

She was lying on her back, she now realized, looking at the sky; the thick band of celestial light arced over her.  Her hands were stretched toward it, a child’s plea for help.  Shaking, crying, she stood. 

The Sekhmet Bed by L. M. Ironside

Sekhmet: “ the Mighty One” 

Ahmose's father, the Pharaoh, dies without an heir. She and her elder sister, Mutnofret, are both married off to General Thutmose, so that he may rule Egypt. Ahmose ,despite being the younger sister, is selected as the first queen, which results in a bitter rivalry with her older sister, Mutnofret. Ahmose has the ability to read prophetic dreams and hence the chosen one. 

The sisters must give Thutmose children, but Ahmose is utterly terrified of pregnancy and giving birth as she seen one of her young friends' die in childbirth. Yet Ahmose knows she must do her duty; she has foreseen that she will be the mother of the next Pharaoh. As her sister gives birth to boy child after boy child, Ahmose knows she must fight to retain her authority as queen and also have love of her husband.

The history of Egypt has been well covered and interest is retained throughout.  I recommend this for all history lovers.

Tuesday Intro: Voltaire's Calligrapher by Pablo De Santis

Every Tuesday Diane from Bibliophile By the Sea hosts First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros, where participants share the first paragraph (or a few) of a book they are reading or thinking about reading soon.

I arrived in this port with very few belongings: four shirts, my calligraphy implements, and a heart in a glass jar. The shirts were threadbare and ink-stained, my quills ruined by the sea air. The heart, however, was intact, indifferent to the voyage, the storms, the humidity. Hearts only wear out in life; after that, nothing can heart them.

Title: Voltaire's Calligrapher
Author: Pablo De SantisISBN: 9780061479885
Publisher: Harper Perennial/2010 (2001)
Pages: 149

Dalessius is a calligrapher, (Calligraphy is a dying art now). He painstakingly inscribes the legal orders of the dying aristocracy. Meanwhile the printing press is spreading fast. He gets to work for the renowned philosopher Voltaire, who sends Dalessius to Toulouse to investigate a murder trial where a father is accused of killing his son before he could convert to Catholicism. While searching their home, Dalessius finds evidences which prove that the son had suicidal tendencies. However, the bloodthirsty people demand his father’s execution. Feeling helpless to stop the execution, Dalessius turns to another intriguing mystery. The hearse that carried him to Toulouse also carried the body of beautiful young woman. She is alive and lives in a hidden house. Dalessius discovers that she is an automaton. He returns to Paris to searching for the maker of such a marvel. 

The prose reminded me of Umberto Eco. It is a dark, sinister mystery, not easy to read. But once one gets into it, one can't leave it. The journey of Dalessius is interesting which takes us "through the gates of sinister castles and to the doors of a bizarre bordello; toward life-and death confrontations with inventive henchmen, ingenious mechanical execution devices, poisonous fish, and murderous automatons."