★ New York Post Best Book of the Week
★ BBC Culture's Ten Books to Read This Month
A THRILLING PAGE-TURNER FROM THE USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE FORTUNE TELLER
Travel through time with the touch of a hand.
Roan West was born with an extraordinary gift: he can relive memories across centuries and glean history first-hand. A highly skilled psychometrist, Roan is able to perceive the past of any object he touches. He has spent his life as a voyeur, using his talents to find and sell valuable antiques, but his quiet life in New Orleans is about to change. Stuart, a fellow pyschometrist and Roan’s close friend, has just unearthed several “ooparts”: out-of-place-artifacts that challenge recorded history, including a ring belonging to the seventeenth century mathematician and philosopher René Descartes that was found buried in prehistoric bedrock.
The implications are staggering, but soon after the discovery, Stuart disappears, making him one of several psychometrists who have died mysteriously in recent months or vanished without a trace. When Roan comes across a YouTube video of a young woman who has discovered a priceless pocket watch by “sensing” it, he knows he has to warn her—but will Melicent Tilpin listen? And can Roan find Stuart before it’s too late? The quest for answers will lead Roan and Melicent around the world, and to forgotten corners of history, before it brings them closer to a startling truth and to each other in the latest romantic thriller from Gwendolyn Womack—the bestselling, PRISM Award-winning author of The Memory Painter and The Fortune Teller.
Praise for The Time Collector
"Womack spins a suspenseful web of mysteries and murderous rivalries, connected by an underpinning of love."―BBC.com (Ten books to read this April)
"A mystical thrill ride, spanning several continents. Flashbacks to different times in history enrich the story with tragedy and hope...For fans of historical fiction who like a hint of the supernatural and cosmic connection."―Booklist
"It's hard not to love a book that creates great characters, has a great thriller story at the center, and lets the reader do some armchair travel... [The Time Collector] is all kinds of things: it's a bit of a romance, it's a bit of an identity quest for Melicent, it's an awakening for Roan... A blast of a read, pure story adrenaline."—Mystery Scene Magazine
"A compelling exploration of time, history, and our primal need to connect with the past, The Time Collector is also a rollicking adventure through ancient mysteries and the moving story of two stunningly drawn characters, chasing the answer to the question of what it means to be human."―Charlie Lovett, New York Times bestselling author of The Bookman's Tale and The Lost Book of the Grail
"A wonderfully intriguing tale, filled with the mystery of objects that tell a story. The Time Collector's fast pace and fascinating premise will delight history and romance lovers."―Yangsze Choo, New York Times bestselling author of The Ghost Bride
"Gwendolyn Womack weaves a suspenseful tale that tackles the question of 'time'―how it’s measured, its impact on nature and human consciousness―and I could hardly put it down! The Time Collector is a treasure trove of ancient artifacts, mysticism, and intrigue, sprinkled with a dash of romance―my very favorite things. What a book!”―Heather Webb, international bestselling author of Meet Me in Monaco
"The Time Collector is a fascinating tale of psychometrists, people who touch an object and sense the stories embedded within them. Pick up this book and you too will be transported across the globe and the centuries into exhilarating worlds filled with history and mystery, magic and mysticism, romance and danger. Its pages make the past come alive. Once you hold this object in your hands, you won’t be able to put it down."―Amy Weiss, author of Crescendo
"Gwendolyn Womack creates such marvelous worlds, magnetic characters, and fascinating stories. The Time Collector is her best novel yet—a feast of historical delights that enrich a spellbinding mystery. I can't wait to see where she takes us next."—Glen Erik Hamilton, Anthony Award-winning author of Mercy River
"The Time Collector is more than a story; it's a fantastical, inventive, and masterfully woven adventure across many lifetimes. Perhaps a future psychometrist will hold my copy of the book and know how much I enjoyed it. One can only hope."—Therese Walsh, author of the critically acclaimed novel The Moon Sisters
"The Time Collector is a glittering jewel of a novel, in which the past is something tangible that is all around us. With multi-faceted characters, a pulse-pounding plot, and threads of history beautifully woven into the story, this is a novel you won't want to put down, and one that will stay with you long after you've turned the final page."―Alyssa Palombo, author of The Spellbook of Katrina Van Tassel