Heaven's Witness

Rating:
Summary: Pretty girls, murder, past lives, good story.
Review:
The twists that mystery writers come up with are amazing. Yet I guess they have to do something to generate a story that would be interesting, after all most murders are pretty dull. At least 95%, maybe 99% of the time it's the two drunks that get into an argument and a knife or gun gets pulled, or a married couple - well you can finish this one, anyone who's been married can. But once in a while it's different, and you can't make much of a who-done-it out of the two drunks.

Here we have a young lady coming to a shrink to be treated for a simple voice problem. Under hypnosis she does an identity switch and becomes a talented teenager who was murdered seven years before she was born. The details she reveals closely fit the details of a recent murder spree.

Enough...From here on you have to read the book, I think you'll enjoy it, I did.

Rating:
Summary: Mesmerizing
Review: A rollercoaster ride of mystery, imagination and beyond. You'll be tempted to turn to the last page to see how it all unfolds, but try to resist. It will be worth the skillfully painted exploration on each and every page. This book will make you think, and perhaps even awaken a dream or two from a time long ago....but is it really just a dream?
I could not put this book down, and I can't wait for Part II.
Excellent!

Rating:
Summary: A Must Read!
Review: I agree with what others have written here. It "hooks" you right away...and if your the type that enjoys thinking you know "who" it us only to find you were wrong...this is a great book for you. Suspicions will come and go throughout the book.

It is very well written and if you happened to be interested in psychology and the different schools of thought...and in religion and if past lives are a possibilty the book and the last chapter will encourage you to think about where answers do come from and the the true soul and story behind every human being.

There's nothing I would change about this book. It was VERY good!

Rating:
Summary: Really fabululous book
Review: I heard the authors of this book interviewed on a radio show. I was so taken with them that I immediately ordered the book. It was an amazing book. Unfortunately, I started reading the book at 10 pm on a Sunday night! After the first 3 pages of the prologue which sets the story for the whole book I was completely hooked. I didn't end up going to bed until 2 am, and only then it was because my eyes literally were closing on their own! The next day I finished reading the book in one sitting. It was riveting, beautiful, fun, exciting, and just an overall great read. I immediately recommended it to everyone I knew. My mother read the book in 2 days as well and loved it too! One of the things that I really enjoyed about the book was the fact that each chapter was like a different scene in a movie. It took you from one character and one scene to another. There was no way to get bored reading this book. The dialogue was wonderful. I tend to "skim" over long diatribes and chapters that seem extremely wordy and never get to the point. I didn't skim a word of this book. It was all succinct and to the point. I think this would make a *great* movie. Mr. Estrin, Rabbi Teluskin, perhaps you should start shopping it around as a screenplay. I would definitely go see the movie! And.....if there is a next book I can't wait!

Rating:
Summary: Very Disappointing
Review: I'm a huge fan of Joseph Telushkin, so I was eagerly looking forward to reading this book. What a disappointment. The writing is wooden, the characters flat, the plot unbelieveable. I was also surprised that some people still believe in pschoanalysis! Oh well, this is set in California, after all.

Rating:
Summary: If you liked GroundHog Day...
Review: If you liked Groundhog Day, the Bill Murray movie, I think you'll enjoy this book.Its entertaining, easy to read, and has depths of interesting ideals. Doctors, pretty girls, sex, secrets, murders, past lives, hypnosis and lots of twists and turns -- it all kept me wanting to keep reading.

Rating:
Summary: Serious page-turner
Review: Just when you think you've figured out who "dunnit" - think again. At first I thought, "oh, this isn't that good of a story, I know who did it." I was absolutely wrong.

I bought this book because of my respect for Rabbi Tulushkin's work with Judaism and for Mr. Estrin's production of Dennis Prager's radio talk show. I was not disappointed. For skeptics, synics, and those with a lot of questions and curiosity, I highly recommend reading this book. You will not be able to put it down.

I'm looking for a sequel.

Rating:
Summary: A profoundly gripping & spiritually insightful mystery
Review: Orthodox Jewish author Sender Zeyv has written: "A good novel must be considered a parable, with the plot serving merely as attractive packaging for the theme. The exterior facade attracts the reader, sets a frame of mind and assists his understanding of the essential message found within." By this definition, Joseph Telushkin and Allen Estrin's Heaven's Witness succeeds wildly.

I finished this 460 page plus mystery in two sittings, so glued was I to the book, utterly incapable of putting it down, forcing me to finally get to bed at nearly three o'clock in the morning last week on the first night of Rosh Hashana. The last time I recall having this "problem" when reading a novel or mystery was.... surprise, surprise.... reading Telushkin's Daniel Winter Mystery Series a few months back.

Young psychiatrist Dr. Jordan Geller meets the lovely redhead Robin Norris at a party while performing hypnosis for entertainment purposes. Norris, a singer and actress, contacts Geller shortly thereafter to seek help in alleviating a throat problem affecting her work and very well being. Geller puts Norris under hypnosis -- out of a personal favor, not a professional service-- when, moments later, to his great confusion and shock, Geller listens to a voice coming from the hypnotized Norris claiming to be a Beverly Casper in the 1970's describing her kidnapping and murder in chilling detail. Geller is even more shaken when he researches newspapers and books to find that there in fact was a Beverly Casper murdered, a crime never solved, with the details matching precisely as Norris described them, information seemingly impossible for her to otherwise know. Geller is forced to consider the possibility of reincarnation, and with a serial killer now on the loose in the L.A. area known as "the Messenger" who demonstrates similar patterns to the killing of Beverly Casper, Geller comes to believe that Beverly's murderer from thirty years prior and "the Messenger" of the current L.A. killing spree taking the lives of young girls are one and the same.

Through this riveting plot, an "essential message" emerges, including a rational dismissal of secular arguments as a compelling case is made for the eternal nature of the soul and the truth of some form of Heavenly justice. Many ethical lessons, including the need to mend broken relationships, --as shown through that of Beverly Casper and her mother--, and the need to preserve and cherish our existing ones, come alive. When Telushkin mentioned reincarnation in his last book, The Ten Commandments of Character, I had no idea he would devote a novel in his next work to exploring the very subject in depth! In that book, as well as Heaven's Witness, another ethical lesson to be gleaned from reincarnation is the following: "Imagine, for example, that white Southerners who lived before the Civil War had been convinced that there is reincarnation. Realizing that they of their children might return to the world as blacks and as slaves, they might have started treating their own slaves very differently and might even have freed them" (The Ten Commandments of Character, p. 296).

Interestingly, while there are countless religious texts dealing with the soul, afterlife, and reincarnation, the most effective books in reinforcing these religious beliefs in my own life have not been classic religious texts, but rather, two novels: Light at the End of the Tunnel, by Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski, and now Heaven's Witness, by Telushkin/Estrin.

I hope you find this book as entertaining, thrilling, insightful, and inspiring as I have. (Also, if you're anything like me, you might even discover you share Dr. Jordan Geller's obsessive love of bookstores.)


Rating:
Summary: A must read for people who like books!
Review: This book was simply awesome. From the moment I picked it up I was not able to put it down. Right when I thought I figured out the mystery the author's would just keep throwing me for a loop. I am an unofficial expert on past life therapy and to my surprise this novel had absolutely no holes in it what so ever when it came to past life regression. This is a must read for past life fans. It is about time reincarnation was presented in such an entertaining and cool way. The book pulls you in so tight that it makes it hard for you to separate the novel from reality. I think this book was secretly based on a true story. Or at least a true story from one of my past lives. Happy reading!

Rating:
Summary: exciting, interesting, and thoroughly well written
Review: Usually when I read a suspense thriller, I spend most of my time simply trying to figure out who the killer is. Not only did this book keep me guessing (and I didn't figure out the killer until the very end), but it also approached the genre from a completely innovative and interesting angle, one that kept me not only guessing, but captivated by the subject matter. Allen Estrin and Joseph Telushkin have succeeded in creating a thoroughly exciting story with engaging characters, electrifying dialogue, and a stimulating, thought-provoking plot!