Melody Carlson, Beyond Reach

Beyond Reach

Melody Carlson

Multnomah, Apr 2007, $11.99

ISBN: 1590526937

In Oregon, seventeen-year-old Samantha MacGregor has a gift from God that enables her to see dreams of the problems confronting other people. She has used her ability to help police officer Ebony Hamilton, but after a harrowing case in Arizona involving the missing rule breaker Kayla Henderson ((see BAD CONNECTION) she comes home tired and asks God for a timeout.

A few days later Ebony asks Samantha to assist her with a cold case involving Peter Clark, a teen shot in the head after leaving a suicide note. His mom believes a homicide occurred after her son's girlfriend Faith Mitchell got in touch with her insisting that Peter would never kill himself. As Samantha tries to help, she realizes she has stopped dreaming for a couple of weeks. That scares her because she believes that God listened to her and took away his gift. She finally envisions her chemistry lab partner Garrett Pierson jumping off a bridge and as to the Clark case she believes the younger brother knows what happened.

BEYOND REACH, book two of the Samantha MacGregor Secret Life tales, is an entertaining, teenage, inspirational, investigative thriller starring a heroine struggling with acceptance of God's special gift to her though her faith is strong. Samantha holds the storyline together as she tries to use her gift to help others, especially her police pal. The cold case will fascinate the audience as Samantha's ability seems gone at first as God heard her prayer for a time out, but how long will that last frightens the courageous teen as she learns to honor what was given to her. The support cast adds mostly to the thriller elements as fans will enjoy Samantha's efforts to do the right thing while trying not to burn out as she is a young human with quite a responsibility.

Harriet Klausner