The Mystery Chronicles: More Real-Life X-Files

by Joe Nickell, James Randi

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.

Genres: Paranormal, Nonfiction

384 pages, Hardcover

First published April 23, 2004

About the author

Joe Nickell was an American skeptic and investigator of the paranormal.
Nickell was a senior research fellow for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and wrote regularly for their journal, Skeptical Inquirer. He was also an associate dean of the Center for Inquiry Institute. He was the author or editor of over 30 books.
Among his career highlights, Nickell helped expose the James Maybrick "Jack the Ripper Diary" as a hoax. In 2002, Nickell was one of a number of experts asked by scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. to evaluate the authenticity of the manuscript of Hannah Crafts' The Bondwoman's Narrative (1853–1860), possibly the first novel by an African-American woman. At the request of document dealer and historian Seth Keller, Nickell analyzed documentation in the dispute over the authorship of "The Night Before Christmas", ultimately supporting the Clement Clarke Moore claim.

Reviews

[Brittany · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though I don't like the author's writing style, he still brings up some great points. I believe we need more books like this, instead of more books about how ghosts and legends are "real"

[Eve Markley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joe Nickell is a skeptic and I appreciate that. I was hoping for a bit more from this book, however. I was looking forward to reading how the author uncovered fakery or provided explanations for odd phenomena. I got a bit of those things, but mostly the author was simply saying how these things might have been done or provided _possible_ explanations. Those things are fine, but it reduced the book to a compilation of opinions. I happen to agree with those opinions for the most part, but that wasn’t as satisfying as reading definite explanations.

[Bee · Rating 1 out of 5]

1 1/2 stars.
Each of the 42 subjects only has 3-10 pages. This allows for a brief summary of the legend and a small list of why the legend isn't plausible.
There just wasn't enough info.