The chapters narrated by this ancient character are a memoir. She is shocked to find a note from the deceased collector inside - addressed to her! He warns her 'not to trust anyone now.' The storyline switches back and forth from Semle's time to the distant past, as she translates the ancient Greek manuscript. During a month in Switzerland when she is cataloguing an estate collection, she discovers a manuscript that does not appear on the list the client gave her. Semle works for an art auctioneer who catalogs, evaluates, and then distributes collections of precious pieces.

It's basically a fictional (?) account of how Tarot Cards came into being. This is a very clever, dual-time novel that takes place in present day, and then, via a discovered manuscript/memoir, takes the reader through history from 48 BC forward. Semele realizes it's up to her to stop them: the manuscript holds the key to a 2000-year-old secret, a secret someone will do anything to possess. The auction date is swiftly approaching, and someone wants to interfere - someone who knows the cards exist, and that the Brossard manuscript is tied to her. Yet Theo is arrogant and elusive, concealing secrets of his own, and there's more to Semele's desire to speak with him than she would like to admit. Only one person can help her make sense of it all: her client, Theo Brossard. But what happened to the cards?Īs the mystery of her connection to it deepens, Semele can't shake the feeling that she's being followed.

The more she reads, the more the manuscript begins to affect Semele's entire life. Both a memoir and a prophecy, it appears to be the work of a powerful seer, describing devastating wars and natural disasters in detail thousands of years before they occurred.

Its author tells the story of a priceless tarot deck, now lost to history.īut as Semele delves further, she realizes the manuscript is more than it seems. And when she discovers a manuscript written in the time of Cleopatra, she knows it will be the find of her career. Semele Cavnow appraises antiquities for an exclusive Manhattan auction house, specializing in deciphering ancient texts. From the award-winning author of The Memory Painter comes a sweeping and suspenseful tale of fate and fortune.

The fortune teller by gwendolyn womack