Today I would like to present to you two books by the same author, Gwendolyn Womack. Gwendolyn is American, born in Texas and currently resides in Los Angeles. Her life has brought her places, among others she also lived in Japan for some time. The two books that I review here are her first and her second novels. The first is titled “The Memory Painter” and it was published two and a half years ago, in April 2015. In this 300-page thriller she is presenting the story of an internationally famous painter whose secret is that his paintings find their origins in his extraordinarily vivid dreams. He meets a woman neurogeneticist, who – as she is trying to decode the part of the brain that stores memories – is fascinated when she finds out about his capacity. The story then leads the two all the way to ancient Egypt. This incredible and very fascinating plot bridges 10.000 years of history and thousands of kilometers across the world. It is an excellent thriller, a real page turner.
The second book is called “The Fortune Teller” and has been published in June this year, so it is basically still quite new on the market. Again we are carried through a story spanning between a New York based auctioneer and the times of Cleopatra. But this is neither a repeat nor a sequel to the first book. It is a completely different story about a manuscript and a priceless Tarot deck. What is the prophecy hidden in this manuscript presented for auction, and does the Tarot deck from Ancient Egypt really exist? Again, Gwendolyn Womack has created a real page turner here.
You might say: why presenting thrillers in an esoteric podcast? Well, I will tell you the reasons: first, the background to both the stories are clearly set in an ambience and historical background that has links to our magical and occult arts. Be it the presentation of dreams like astral travel or using the Tarot as a real book of Thoth, those subjects are part of our esoteric world. And honestly, I love reading those great and very dense books by many of our occult authors, but very regularly I also like to read a well written thriller. And when the subject of such a book is something I work with regularly, something that I know about and which is important to me, like the Tarot here for example, it makes it all the better for me. Best is that those books by Gwendolyn Womack are well researched and so much better written than some of those big bestsellers that use esoteric and occult subjects – I am not going to give names, but you might understand which ones I mean.
It is difficult to present two thrillers, telling more about their stories and not to spoil anything. So I am not going to reveal more of what you will find in them. But what I definitely want to say is that Gwendolyn’s way of writing is exciting, but also stylistically interesting and a real nice read. So if you are looking for a nice read, some high level entertainment without having to give up your favourite subjects of occultism or paranormal, go for those books.
Both were published by New York publishers Picador and are available on all the online book stores, also in Europe. Definitely worth the read!
