The Mystery Chronicles

" With a foreword by James Randi Paranormal investigator Joe Nickell has spent more than thirty years solving the world's most perplexing mysteries. This new casebook reveals the secrets of the Winchester Mystery House, the giant Nazca drawings of Peru, the Shroud of Turin, the "Mothman" enigma, the Amityville Horror house, the vicious goatsucking El Chupacabras, and numerous other "unexplainable" paranormal phenomena. Nickell has traveled far and wide to solve cases, which include a weeping icon in Russia, the elusive Bigfoot-like "yowie" in Australia, the reputed power of a headless saint in Spain, and an "alien hybrid" in Germany. He has gone undercover -- often in disguise -- to reveal the tricks of those who pretend to talk to the dead, accompanied a Cajun guide into a Louisiana swamp in search of a fabled monster, and gained an audience with a voodoo queen. Superstar psychic medium John Edward, pet psychic Sonya Fitzpatrick, evangelist and healer Benny Hinn, and many other well-known figures have found themselves under Nickell's careful scrutiny. The Mystery Chronicles examines more than three dozen intriguing mysteries. Nickell uses a hands-on approach and the scientific method to steer between the extremes of mystery mongering and debunking. His investigative skills have won him both acclaim and controversy during his long career as one of the world's foremost paranormal investigators.

From Publishers WeeklyIn this sequel to The Real-Life X-Files: Investigating the Paranormal (2001), Nickell, a senior research fellow of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), collects 41 short pieces sure to please skeptics. On the other hand, believers drawn by the "X-Files" in the subtitle and the paranormal category label may be dismayed to discover that the author provides rational, often mundane explanations for such phenomena as crop circles, the Nazca lines in Peru, the shroud of Turin, the Winchester mystery house, various ghosts and haunted houses, spiritualism, voodoo and much more. In straightforward, understated prose, Nickell describes frauds, deceptions and instances of superstition among vulnerable and gullible victims, some of which he exposed by covert investigations. Those looking for further reading on these topics will welcome the reference lists at the end of each chapter. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From BooklistNickell is a hands-on skeptic, who prefers to visit the scene of a good mystery, testing for trickery among the psychics, or tramping around in the swamps looking for monsters. When he can't visit a site personally, he makes a reasonable effort to research the facts of the case and engage in critical speculation. His varied work experience as a private investigator, forensic document analyst, stage magician, carnival pitchman, and English professor gives him credibility as a hard-nosed researcher and writer. This sequel to his Real-Life X-Files (2001) is a compilation of 41 investigative reports, most of which have appeared in issues of the Skeptical Inquirer magazine. Some of the mysteries he chronicles (and, for the most part, finds explanations for) are supposed hauntings such as the "Amityville horror" in New York and the ghost of voodoo queen Marie Laveau in New Orleans. Nickell considers himself an investigator rather than a debunker, so this is no slash-and-burn diatribe against true believers; however, the book does offer some cautionary tales that uncritical paranormalists should take to heart. George EberhartCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved