Too Near The Edge (Cleo & Tyler Mysteries) [Kindle Edition]

Lynn Osterkamp (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A good mystery story, characters that I made a connection with, and locations that I wanted to visit --- what else can you ask for in a book?"

--Joe Graham, Reader Views

"An excellent book. Very well written...characters well-developed and believable. I would encourage anyone who enjoys mysteries to grab it." --mrscherer, LibraryThing

"The twists, turns and blindsides were awesome and I found myself unable to put it down." --cwaldrum, LibraryThing

"The mystery deepens and gets more complicated...all leading to a very unexpected standoff towards the end." --Armchair Interviews

"This book was well done all the way around. The characters were believable, the plot was suspenseful, and it was well edited." --cramundson, LibraryThing

"Gets hold of you from the first page...makes you keep reading... Exciting novel recommended to anyone who loves mysteries." -- BookPleasures.com, December 2006

Product Description

A man falls to his death at the Grand Canyon. Accident, suicide or murder? What if you could ask him?

When park rangers find Adam's crumpled body 300 feet below the rim of the Grand Canyon, they think he was one more careless tourist. But back home in Boulder, Colorado, his grief-stricken wife Sharon is sure he was murdered. She won't rest until she knows why he was so troubled in the month before he died. Over the objections of her prominent father, she turns to grief therapist Cleo Sims, who runs a project that re-unites people with dead loved ones.


Despite threats and warnings, Cleo takes on the challenge to help Sharon contact Adam and solve the mystery of his death. She gets extra encouragement from Tyler, a surfer-dude spirit who visits her from beyond, offers cryptic advice, and pushes her to "ride the wave" with Sharon.

Tension mounts and Cleo's professional reputation and her life are on the line as her digging uncovers a sinister underbelly of scams, fraud and deceit in this hip mountain community. 


If you're looking for a fast-paced mystery, with a courageous female sleuth, unexpected plot turns, a cast of fascinating suspects, a touch of humor and a paranormal twist, Too Near the Edge is the quick, enjoyable read for you.

Too Near the Edge won a silver medal for best regional fiction in the 2007 Independent Publisher Book Awards

Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 405 KB
• Print Length: 255 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1933826223
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: PMI Books (August 4, 2008)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B001DTSRKW
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #44,915 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

More About the Author

Lynn Osterkamp is the author of Too Near the Edge, and its sequel Too far Under--the mystery novels that gave life to Cleo, a Boulder-based grief therapist whose ability to contact dead people gets her involved in solving a murder; and Tyler, a dead surfer dude who gives Cleo cryptic and often inscrutable advice. Too Near the Edge won a silver medal in the 2007 IPPY Book Awards for best regional fiction in the west-mountain region.

Lynn is also the author of two nonfiction books as well as numerous articles, manuals and national newsletters. Her professional experience includes hospital and hospice social work, university teaching and research, special education, and long-term-care ombudsman. She lives in Boulder Colorado, where she works for Boulder County Aging Services.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Too Near the Edge, May 13, 2011

By 

Mary E. Young "JanaRose1" (Covington, Georgia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Too Near The Edge (Cleo & Tyler Mysteries) (Paperback)

Cleo is a grief therapist, one who combines her skills in psychology with the paranormal. Through her practice, she connects loved ones with the recently deceased through a combination of soul searching, meditating, and the paranormal. When Sharon is referred to her by a friend, Cleo is in for more than she bargained for. With an unusual and quirky cast of characters, this book kept me up reading all night long. I definitely enjoyed the myriad of twists and turns, as well as the author's writing style. Overall, this was a home run!

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Suspenseful, May 5, 2011

By 

Ravynne - See all my reviews

This review is from: Too Near The Edge (Cleo & Tyler Mysteries) (Paperback)

Too Near the Edge, by Lynn Osterkamp, is an interesting story about trust, lost, and suspicion. This book tells the story primarily of Cleo and Sharon, a psychic and a widow who are trying to unravel the mystery of Sharon's late husband's death.

Lynn Osterkamp did a sensational job of developing her characters. She does a great job of raising suspicions with many of the characters, which makes it truly difficult to guess which person could be responsible for Sharon's husband's death. Each time the evidence begins to lead to one character, Osterkamp presents new information about another character that raises one's suspicions all over again.

There were a few grammatical errors here and there, and the end leaves one wondering what happens to a few of the characters, but the plot of this story certainly made up for it. Too Near the Edge does a great job of keeping its audience in suspense and keeps one guessing throughout. Once again, Osterkamp does a great job.

Theme: 5
Narration: 5
Character Development: 5
Plot: 5
Setting: 4
Style: 4.5

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Ok, May 9, 2011

By 

V. Cano - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Too Near The Edge (Cleo & Tyler Mysteries) (Paperback)

I received this book through the Librarything Member's GIveaway program.
This is a book that could have used a good round of extra editing, both grammatically and story-line wise. The first issue is that it begins really slowly, for the first few pages it drags in building up the plot. The author made the rough choice of writing in the present tense, which is never the best option unless the author is a master. It's just very limiting.
The characters themselves are not as original as they'd need to be to make the book work, their actions are predictable except when they are so random the reader is left staggering and turning pages (or in my case epages) to see if there was anything I missed.
The middle section is better crafted, the pacing is steadier and much more amusing than the beginning, but as we get closer to the end, the plot stasrts to unravel again.
Some of the characters seemed superfluous, like Tyler, the main character's spirit guide, who offers nothing substantial to the story at all. Actually, the fact that the main character is a "psychic" makes no real difference.
It wasn't a horrible book, but it also wasn't anything to write home about.