Eccentric tobacco tycoon Rodger Hawthorne III can have anything his heart desires except his dead wife, Sarah. Feeling responsible for the car crash that killed her thirty years ago, he offers one million dollars to anyone who can find her spirit and bring it to him within one week or the money is forfeited. Six spiritually-challenged-but highly intuitive-women find his ad over the Internet and accept his challenge only to embark on a journey they didn’t quite expect that covers astral traveling, past life regressions and spiritual encounters of the unworldly kind. While this book is lightly based on a true story of a real man who is offering one million dollars to anyone who can prove that spirits exist, this story is purely fictional.

This story begins with the appearance of Roger Hawthorne III on a talk show, promising $1M to anyone who can prove to him that ghosts exist. What he doesn’t share with the public is that he is looking for his young wife, Sarah, who died thirty years ago in a car accident. He gets plenty of emails from crazies. However, six women with varying psychic abilities stand out as good candidates.

Shiloh Swallowtail: a psychic who lost her husband and feels lost on her new spiritual path.
Ezra Anne Thornberry: a clairaudient who has visitations from a helpful ghost named Henri.
Brianna Campbell: a curious dabbler, who misses her dead husband Rick.
Fanella: a psychic who feels as if life is moving around her too quickly.
Peggy Maguire: a metaphysical Sunday school teacher.
Brooke Murphy: an herbal practitioner and Wiccan.

Each of these women have their own motivations for finding this ghost and winning the money. As soon as Hawthorne accepts their applications, the story centers on them finding his beloved Sarah while dealing with their own spiritual hurdles. I loved the tight pace in the beginning, when Hawthorne struggled over whether or not he should air his challenge and his opinion of the afterlife and the psychics. Then there was the town’s negative reaction to the women’s presence. Both these elements gave this story a good balance between believers and skeptics.

As for the psychics, I had mixed feelings. A lot of this had to do with the writing, which needed a good editor’s pen. At times, the wording in the dialogue was almost preachy, where spiritual matters were concerned. Then there was a scene in the climax that I felt was too fantastical.

That said, I thought that the ending was great. Despite my issue with the editing, I enjoyed this book because of its original premise. It’s definitely worth the read. To learn more about the book and the authors, visit The Search for the Million $$$ Ghost blog.

Annie Wilson (Cate Blanchett) is a widow with three young sons and a gift: she’s a clairvoyant who supports her family by reading cards to foretell the futures of the local townsfolk. She’s got quite a following, but not everyone appreciates her talents. Donnie Barksdale (Keanu Reeves) beats his wife, Valerie (Hillary Swank), on daily basis. When Annie advises her client to leave her abusive husband, he retaliates with threats and misdemeanor crimes.

Not long after these altercations, Jessica King vanishes. Because she is the daughter of a prominent citizen and the fiancee of the school principal, her disappearance makes headlines. Annie begins having disturbing nightmares and visions about the woman. When the local law enforcement fails to find Jessica’s body, they reluctantly seek Annie’s assistance.

She leads them directly to Donnie’s pond, where they find Jessica’s body. The case appears open and shut, especially since his violent temper was well known. Annie’s dreams and visions begin to intensify after Donnie is sentenced to jail, forcing her to seek help from the prosecuting attorney and Jessica’s grieving fiancee.

Although the whodunit didn’t surprise me, I enjoyed the paranormal twists throughout the movie. The Southern gothic setting added to the creepiness and suspense. If you enjoy The Medium or Ghost Whisperer, you’ll enjoy The Gift.

I’ve enjoyed watching The Medium since its first season and was sorely disappointed when NBC put it on the Wednesday/10pm slot, after Lost, a show that has grown exceedingly tired to many people. I watched this season’s premiere, which was a very powerful episode. Since then, I haven’t watched the show because it comes on too late. Many people are in the same boat.

I wondered how much this would hurt the show. It didn’t surprise me to learn that The Medium is on the verge of being discontinued, along with other paranormal shows, such as Jericho and Crossing Jordan. I agree with BlogCritics in that NBC should have aired the show after Heroes. Instead, we get to watch the greed-fest called Deal or No Deal. Go figure.

Source: Variety

Popular TV clairvoyant, Sylvia Browne appeared on The Montel Williams Show in February 2003, four months after 11 year-old Shawn Hornbeck vanished. His parents, Pam and Craig Akers, were desperate to find clues to Shawn’s whereabouts. But Browne didn’t give them good news. She told them that she believed that Shawn was dead.

In her vision, she saw his body lying in the woods between two large jagged boulders, some 20 miles from his Richwoods, Missouri home. She even gave a description of the murderer: a dark skinned man that might be Hispanic, with long dread locks. Search teams redirected their efforts, only to find nothing.

According to Wayne Evans of the Shawn Hornbeck Foundation, Browne called Shawn’s parents about a month after the show to offer another sitting for a hefty fee of $700 per half hour. Browne adamantly denies this, stating that she never charges for missing child cases.

Four years later, Shawn was found alive and well. His abductor wasn’t a Hispanic man with long dreadlocks, but a 300-pound white man named Michael Devlin, who abducted another boy last week. Much to everyone’s relief and chagrin, Sylvia Browne was way off her mark and both boys are safe.

Despite the double happy ending, Browne’s blunders may damage the hard-won respect that other psychic detectives are trying to gain from law enforcement as well as the public.