Book Description

“Science-based explanations for unusual happenings [and] documented solutions for more than three dozen mysteries.” ―Dallas Morning News Investigator Joe Nickell has spent over 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 goat-sucking El Chupacabra, and many other “unexplainable” 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, as Nickell uses a hands-on approach and the scientific method to steer between the extremes of mystery mongering and debunking. With a foreword by James Randi “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.” —Booklist “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.” —Publishers Weekly