Cecil B Murphey

If you're hoping for a vivid description of what heaven looks like, you won't find it here. The author spends more time describing his recovery from the car accident that killed him (temporarily). It challenges a few things I believe to be true about heaven, but did make me hopeful. It also made me quit whining about my stomach hurting all weekend after reading what this guy had to endure.

A surprisingly good mystery. I haven't read a straight out Christian whodunnit before, but since I'm a believer in God anyway this didn't pose any issues. Even if not a Christian, mystery fans should like this book. It was set on an isolated island, bringing back memories of Ten Little Indians, which is even quoted by a character for its similarities. All were summoned for a mysterious announcement and of course came across murder.

The blackmail stories unraveling were interesting, as were show more false leads and the final reveal. It's not usual for a final revelation in a mystery to be depressing and heartwarming at the same time, but this book pulled that off. Characters worked well enough - especially Simon. I wasn't gung-ho over the female lead, Julie, half the time, but didn't detest her. The book was split in the middle from two points of view - the minister and Julie, who was a therapist. In between those two were the wealthy and rich who rose to fame through corruption and family members who felt slighted by the victim's treatment.

The writing was a little simple at times; it took me a minute to warm up to it, but once the story took off it flowed by. It's a quick read which is hard to put down because these kinds of mysteries fascinate me - seclusion, being in a house with a group and knowing one is a killer but not knowing who it is, finding out the past crimes and sins of all the occupants and figuring out which with the motive took that final step. I wasn't able to guess the murderer clearly, although who did it didn't turn out to matter much in the end anyway. It's one of those stories where the revealing is what's exciting, not who the culprit is.

Not perfect but better than I figured - it stimulated the little grey cells in the brain for most of the book, and then turned to tug on the old heart strings at the end. show less

Written in straight-forward, simple style without a lot of "religionese," Don Piper has told the story of his devastating accident, his brief time in heaven and his return to a life full of pain and questions. I read it cover-to-cover in two hours and then loaned out my copy. I would recommend this book to just about anybody -- to those with questions about faith, questions about prayer, questions about life and death and pain which we all face to some extent.

His descriptions of heaven are show more human ones -- simple, not overly poetic or grandiose, just those of someone who experienced the indescribable and then tried to describe it. I loved the descriptions of the incredible heavenly music and I get the feeling that vast choirs and heightened senses await us there. And despite the incredible experience, Piper found it too personal, too private, and too intimate to share with anyone for over a year after his accident. I'm so glad he found the courage to do so.

I also love the honesty with which he describes his pain and depression and the inevitable questions that we must face when we have close encounters with the Almighty. The God we meet is often not the one we expected, and while we can't understand why God does what he does, we can no longer deny this God we don't understand. And while we hold these two things together, our lives are changed and grace is showered down amid the ruins of what we thought was important to us.

A simply-told story of the greatest mystery of all -- you HAVE to read this book!! show less

Any book that talks about heaven I will enjoy reading. But I thought something was missing in this book. The author focused too much on his own struggles and not enough on his experience in heaven. It seemed that the balance between them was missing. It is a very easy read-I finished it in one day and I tend to read slowly.