M.J. Rose does for reincarnation what Dan Brown did for the Jesus-as-married theory in her stunning suspense novel The Reincarnationist, a multi-layered story that bridges the past and the present and combines romance, mystery and intrigue into a solid page-turner that will leave you breathless.

The story centers on photojournalist Josh Ryder, who finds himself moving between a past life and love in early Christian Rome, and a present mystery that weaves an intricate web of clues leading toward the recovery of a powerful set of ancient gemstones which endow the ability to merge the past with the present. The stones have been taken from a sacred tomb, and it is up to Josh and his colleague, Professor Gabriella Chase, to get the stones back and out of danger of being misused for evil purposes.

Ryder has continuous experiences of his past life in Rome and his forbidden love of a woman named Sabina, a vestal virgin, and his present conundrum of trying to piece together how his past and his present are connected. Author Rose literally tells two stories in one here and does it skillfully, never losing the reader along the way, by paralleling past events in ancient Rome with a modern-day The Da Vinci Code-style adventure that blends fact with fiction.

The author, who has also written eight previous novels and two nonfiction books on marketing, has obviously researched the subject matter well and includes much of her tantalizing findings into the plotline. The end result is a book that you will have a hard time putting down, thanks to tight plotting, solid dialog and, of course, the undeniable and magical attraction of exploring past lives.

The Reincarnationist has already been snapped up for feature film rights, and we can look forward to a mind-expanding movie based upon the book. But for those who cannot wait, read the novel and be prepared to lose yourself to not just one world of love, passion and intrigue, but two. For in this book, past and present collide, and we get to witness it firsthand.