On 26 June 2004, Billy Dusseault died in a road traffic accident four days before his 29^th birthday. About ten months after his passing, Billy’s family started to notice unusual light anomalies in photographs they had taken in and around their home.

They believe these signs are from their son Billy in spirit to show death isn’t the end and the spirit lives on. This book, written by Guy and Jo-Ann Dusseault, Billy’s parents, is both a testament to Billy’s life and a record of the lights that are occurring in abundance in their photographs.

In truth the writing is sparse and repeats much of the story and photographs documented on the website, www.oursonbilly.com/. In this respect there is no extra benefit to buying the book, however all proceeds from sales go towards a Maine Community scholarship fund maintained in Billy’s name.

Critically speaking, both the website and the book would benefit having an editorial review to remove grammatical errors. The book contains many pages of photographs with lists of dates which can seem repetitive, but this aside the book is interesting and, to my mind, the photographs are interesting if not inspirational and collected together in loving memorial of Billy’s life.

Sceptics could argue the heart-shaped moons, orbs and halos around streetlights have all been expertly created through digital manipulation and special effects; the creation of a heart-broken man who cannot move on. But Guy says the signs have actually given him the peace of heart to move on with his life and, rather than grieve, he feels driven to share the joy and love spirit has to offer.

He has not addressed any suggestion the photographs are fakes either in the book or on the website, which perhaps in itself bears testament to his honesty. Guy also claims to have tens of thousands of different photographs all detailing similar anomalies, which, if they were forgeries, would be an astounding commitment to deceive by anyone’s reckoning.

The majority of the signs are heart-shaped moons, streaking street lights and house lights, heart-shaped Christmas lights as well as mists and orbs both outside and inside their home. The book makes no mention whether the light anomalies can also be captured when Guy leaves his home and neighbourhood although there are some orbs on photographs of the road where Billy died. As a reader, I’d be interested to know how extensive this phenomenon is.

Since reading the book I’ve noticed ‘streaky lights’ in a couple of my own photographs but I think it’s down to picking the wrong shutter speed! I do feel however that Billy’s spirit is trying to convey a message of love and hope. If you already know there is life on the other side this book will not give you anything new other than an intriguing collection of photographs and one man’s personal story but it’s a loving and moving tribute at that.

Signs From Our Loved Ones , by Guy Dusseault, Amazon UK , Amazon USA

Website: www.oursonbilly.com

ISBN: Soft cover 978-1-4257-3392-6 Hard cover 978-1-4257-3393-3

Publisher: Xlibris Corporation, www.xlibris.com/