Lynn Osterkamp

This book in the Cleo and Tyler mystery series focuses on a dead mother, a hurt child, a last will, and greed. Cleo communicates with the dead with the help of her spirit guide and surfer, Tyler. She is hired to find out if Mirabel accidently drown in the tub or if she was murder. The plot moves along and all questions are answered at the end, except one. That one question most likely will be the bases for the next book in the series. The novel needs to be edited for missing punctuation, spelling mistakes, mixed tenses, and fragmented sentences.… (más)

This fourth edition defines what stress is and the affects stress has on physical and mental well-being. One-third of the book discussed relaxation, meditation, exercise, and eating healthy as a way to combat stress. The remaining chapters deal with relationship and time management. There are examples and practical tips for handling stressful situations throughout. The book does not include footnotes or endnotes. There is not an index to allow a person to look for situations by subject. Allan Press has a Bachelor’s of Science in math and a Master of Arts and Doctorate in social and research psychology. Lynn Osterkamp is a member of the Secret Authors of American (MSW) Corporation. Although she is listed as having a Doctorate, the field of study is unknown.… (más)

Adam Meyer is deeply troubled and needs to get away. Everyone recommends going hiking at the Grand Canyon. Unfortunately for Adam someone pushes him over the edge to his death. However, the police rule his death as a suicide and do not do any investigating.

Cleo Sims is a grief counselor with an controversial way of helping her patients. She has a special therapy called the Contact Project. The Contact Project helps clients get in touch with loved ones who have died so that there can be closure.

Sharon Meyer desperately wants to see if the Contact Project could help her contact Adam. She doesn’t accept that Adam killed himself as they were so happy. The more Cleo finds out about details surrounding the death of Adam, the more suspicious she is that his death was no accident.

Who could have killed him and why? There are quite a few suspects. All of them have secrets and all of them want to keep their secrets hidden at all costs.

Cleo believes deeply in her Contact Project. Tyler, a true ‘surfing dude’, is a spirit that she unintentionally contacts during her first time in the “apparition room”. He pops in and out of Cleo’s world every once in a while giving her clues. The problem is the clues are in surfer’s lingo and very vague. The one consistent message is that she “needs to ride the wave to the end”.

Cleo’s biggest problem throughout is - who can she trust? What was bothering Adam so much that he had to go away to think about it? The mystery deepens and gets more complicated the more she finds out leading to a very exciting and unexpected stand off towards the end.

… (más)

Do you find the characters convincing? All of the characters are convincing and very believable. They seemed like a group of people I might meet in daily life.

Who in this book would you most like to meet? Sabrina, so strong yet so trusting and willing to help everyone.

What did you think of the story structure? Each character delivered parts of the past in small chunks. I believe this was intentional and very effective for the story.

Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book from the author.… (más)