Passage

by Connie Willis

This is a gripping story. The characters are realistic and compelling. Willis manages to tell this story about NDE research, that has you longing for an answer, yet nearly consumed with compassion for her characters.

Joanne is working on researches NDEs from a scientific and psychological point of view. She is hampered by the intrusion of an author who is more interested in selling books and saying what he thinks people want to hear than in producing an honest report of what happens during these near death experiences. He leads patients on and implants ideas, thus contaminating the information Joanne is trying to garner.

The arrival on the scene of yet another NDE reasearcher would seem improbable in a single hospital setting, yet somehow Dr Wrights appearance is blended carefully enough into the storyline that it makes perfect sense. He is researching near death experiences from a physical cause point of view. Joanna teams up with Dr Wright and things start happening pretty cquickly.

Wright and Joanna carefully compile a lot of information that seems to be going nowhere. Their team of volunteers begins to fall apart. Even though they are working with the same information, it looks like they are both being led in different directions.

This is an edge of the seat read for anyone who likes Willis, or is interested in NDE's. The ending is just that. I was completely unable to guess where it would all lead until the last page ended. And still, She leaves it to you to draw your own conclusions . I heartily recommend this book!

The Authenticator

By William M Valtos

A breathtaking journey into the afterlife and back again. For those of us who are curious about near death experiences, and those of us who have had them this is an amazing story.

Theos who is a rather down on his luck, well educated young man has found himself working for a professor whose life work is to prove the existence of an afterlife. Theos himself is somewhat doubtful about the whole business, but his loyalty to the professor as well as his need to earn a living keep him going.

When his investigation leads him to the bedside of a beautiful woman who had been reported to have a remarkable NDE, he finds himself drawn into her story, and to her. Giving into her pleas that her rescue her from her current situation has them both running for their lives.

He finds in himself a strength he never imagined that he possessed. From one seemingly impossible situation to another, he finds himself falling hard for this enigma of a woman. He seeks help from people from his own past, people he never thought to see again but, her life, Laura's life stood to be lost in a horrifying manner.

They fled, they hid, and they grew closer Using all of his past experiences to solve the mystery of how Laura had first come to lose her life. And how she returned to tell about what lies beyond. He used all of his investigative skills, until finally it becomes clear.

Finally, it has all come down to him. It is up to Theos to find a way to authenticate his beloved Professor DeBray's many years of work. He is the only one that can prove that beyond the research, beyond the investigation, and even beyond death lies a magnificent truth.