The Mystery Chronicles: More Real-Life X-Files

by Joe Nickell

Book Overview

" 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...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0813123186
• ISBN13: 9780813123189
• Release Date: April 2004
• Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
• Length: 360 Pages
• Weight: 0.93 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.2" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Great book, I can't wait for more

For anybody who likes reading Joe's "Investigative Files" column in Skeptical Inquirer magazine (the I only reason I read it), this book is a much better investment than a subscription. I can't wait for the next volume. Contents of this book: 1) Mystery of the Nazca Lines 2) The Fiery Specter 3) The Exorcist: The Case Behind the Movie 4) The "Goatsucker" Attack 5) Undercover Among the Spirits: Investigating Camp Chesterfield 6) Alien Hybrid? 7) Image of Guadalupe: Myth-perception 8) Human Blowtorch 9) Remotely Viewed? The Charlie Jordan Case 10) Amityville: the Horror of it All 11) Sideshow! Investigating Carnival Oddities and Illusions 12) "Mothman" Solved! Investigating on Site 13) Relics of the Headless Saint 14) Circular Reasoning: Crop Circles and Their "Orbs" of Light 15) Zanzibar Demon 16) Winchester Mystery House 17) Voodoo in New Orleans 18) Secrets of the Voodoo Tomb 19) A Case of Spontaneous Human Combustion Demystified 20) Tracking the Swamp Monsters 21) John Edward: Talking to the Dead? 22) Scandals and Follies of the "Holy Shroud" 23) "Pyramid Power" in Russia 24) Diagnosing the "Medical Intuitives" 25) Alien Abductions as Sleep-Related Phenomena 26) "Visitations": After-Death Contacts 27) The Sacred Cloth of Oviedo 28) A Typical Aries? 29) The Case of the Psychic Shamus: Do Psychics Really Help Solve Crimes? 30) The Pagan Stone 31) Benny Hinn: Healer or Hypnotist? 32) Australia's Convict Ghosts 33) Psychic Pets and Pet Psychics 34) Cryptids "Down Under" 35) Joseph Smith: A Matter of Visions 36) In Search of Fisher's Ghost 37) Ghostly Portents in Moscow 38) Mystique of the Octagon Houses 39) Weeping Icons 40) Spiritualist's Grave 41) Incredible Stories: Charles Fort and His Followers Other books by Joe that I recommend are Entities (which I also reviewed), Real-Life X-Files, Secrets of the Supernatural, and Mysterious Realms.

Over three dozen mysteries in supernatural X-file style

Self-taught paranormal investigator Joe Nickell's new book The Mystery Chronicles is sub-titled "More Real Life X-Files" with good reason: it includes over three dozen mysteries in supernatural X-file style, with powerful documentation of solutions and focus on some of Nickell's most significant cases, from crop circles to New Orleans voodoo. There are scientific explanations for seemingly paranormal happenings: Nickell's inquires expose these underlying truths, while his background as a scientific researcher exposing paranormal events lends credence and authority to a fine investigative study.

Great Read; Perfect for Busy People

The Mystery Chronicles is a collection of 41 reports on a wide range of different mysteries and paranormal occurances, many of them quite well-known, thanks to other books with titles like "Great Mysteries" or "The Greatest Unsolved Mysteries" -- you know what I mean. (In fact, if I didn't know the author, I would have dismissed this book as yet another one of those books because of its sensational-looking cover.) What sets this book apart from the rest is that the author Joe Nickell is well-qualified to investigate these mysteries with his skills in private investigation and professional magic. Best of all, he has personally gone down to many of the mystery sites to experience first-hand the mysteries for himself, rather than relying solely on second-hand information. Many of those experiences have been detailed in the book. Each report forms a chapter, and most of them are quite short (around 5 pages), with only a few exceeding 10 pages. They are not linked nor arranged in any particular order (as far as I can tell). Each report ends with a list of references -- I doubt it's necessary for most readers, but it lends credibility to the author. Although the inclusion of the references does make the book appear academic (in contrast to the cover design), the writing style is hardly so. On top being easy to read, the book is well-illustrated with photographs/illustrations. Along with the mostly-short chapters, this book is just perfect for the busy reader. For those who don't know the author, Joe Nickell is a skeptic, and the conclusions of his reports will not helpful (nor welcome) for those who prefer to believe in those mysteries. For those who are open-minded, this book will prove to be a great eye-opener. For the hard-core skeptic, there's nothing new here, but still a good read.