JOHN PINKNEY is a bestselling Australian author, screenwriter and journalist.
*His newest ebook is the novel Grave Injustice: An Afterlife Odyssey.
This dark, pacy science fiction thriller draws on John's career-long research into the paranormal - and the strange phenomena that may occur beyond the barriers of death. Over the years, he has spoken to numerous people who clinically died and were then resuscitated - returning to describe landscapes and events of breathtaking beauty. The testimonies of these returnees from the brink inspired John to write Grave Injustice. The narrative extends far beyond NDEs (near-death experiences.) It's set in Sydney and tropical Queensland; describing human love, courage and sacrifice, both earthly and transcendental. Ranged against the young lovers are a corporate cell of scientifically accomplished soul-thieves,who draw their ideas from Dante's nine circles of Hell. Terrifyingly, the novel portrays brutal conflict between good and evil. And it's hard, for a host of reasons, to predict which will prevail.
John Pinkney's other ebooks include Haunted: the Ghosts that Share Our World...Australia's Strangest Mysteries #1 and #2...A Paranormal File: An Australian Investigator's Casebook...The Mary Celeste Syndrome...Alien Airships Over Old America...Thirst: an Inheritance of Evil...The Girl Who Touched Infinity...The Key and the Fountain. John's original screenplay Thirst, directed by Rod Hardy and produced by Anthony I. Ginnane won Best Horror Film prize at the Asia-Pacific Film Festival. His 3-act drama, The Face in the Mirror, was co-awarded Best Stage Play in the General Motors/Elizabethan Theatre Trust competition. He has written several hundred drama episodes for TV - and his paperbooks, including such titles as Great Australian Mysteries 1 & 2, Haunted, Unexplained and Unsolved have been numerously reprinted. His 3-volume Mazeworld series has appeared in USA and UK and in translation through Europe. His logic puzzle books Think!, Think Again! and Wordgames have also been published internationally. For many years John was a prominent writer with Australia's Age newspaper, subsequently moving his column, Pinkney Place to Rupert Murdoch's national daily The Australian. Here he covered the century's most extraordinary UFO case: the disappearance without trace of young pilot Frederick Valentich, after radioing Flight Services that he was being 'orbited' by a gigantic craft. [full story and photographs are in A Paranormal File.] John has had a lifelong interest in the unsolved and unexplained. His fascination with the unknown took its most practical form when, with lawyer-friend Peter Norris, he co-founded the organization known today as VUFORS - the Victorian UFO Research Society. John and Peter collaborated to host the weekly radio series The Truth Behind UFOs and Do You Believe in Ghosts? Over the years John Pinkney's broadcasts and columns have attracted a large mail from listeners and readers describing their brushes with the bizarre. Readers of his books continue the input.
Word to the wise - DO NOT READ THIS BOOK JUST BEFORE YOU TURN OUT THE LIGHTS!!! This wonderful book takes a look at everything unexplained that's happened in Australia. From ghosts and various hauntings to UFO's that steal water and leave strange marks behind, you'll find every kind of freaky tale contained within the books pages. What I really enjoyed about it is that it's one of those books that you can pick up and put down at will. The stories are short and to the point but will leave a chill rippling down your spine. Give this one a go if you want a tour de force of the strange side of Australia.
John Pinkney annoys me for some reason. Perhaps it's his sir-name, or maybe it's his inability to stick to the bloody topic. Unexplained, mysteries and disappearances, these do not entail ghosts and hauntings and all the bloody material he put in his other book, 'Haunted'. There is one good story about the UFO-related disappearances in the Bass Strait, but otherwise this book was just annoying.
After Second Reading - 2 Stars
I didn't enjoy this any more the second time. Pinkney's loose and unverified book on spiritualism, precognition and mediumship does no favours to said topics. Surely there are many false stories as well as many cases of self-deception. Shit, no matter what you believe, you can't ignore those simple facts. But as someone who is generally open to the idea of life beyond Earth, a firm though proofless believer in ghosts, a faithful Catholic and a generally imaginative person, I have always been partial to things many rationalists refuse to accept. Call in ignorance. Or call it naivety. I myself call it humility. I think he is an arrogant man who thinks that he knows everything. We put too much narrow-minded faith towards empiricism. We think that if something can't be explained through the rigid frame of human logic, then it can't be real. I respectfully disagree.
This book, though, features the most ludicrous stories. Many are not even near conclusive. They cater to the type of person who sees clouds in the sky and swears they see faces, those who base their life expectations on the astrology page of whatever silly magazine. Pinkney even goes so far as to making allegations that his contemporaries (whom he comically admits to beong disliked by) are reincarnated individuals from the past, just because certain similarities in their occupations and character match.
This collection of accounts is of the vaguest and most uncritical kind. No explanation or investigation is provided. And even from a purely sceptical point of view, the stories contained herein are not even particularly scary or interesting. Your average Youtube Top-10 video provides better entertainment.
This is a very nicely put together book exploring unexplained phenomena. Some books of this nature have an amateurish feel, but this is a smooth and professional read. A large variety of experiences are recounted in a well-organised layout, in a comfortable writing style that does not strive to be spooky (beyond stating what occurred) or sensationalist. It certainly has me thinking about the scattering of unusual things I've experienced in my life...
I enjoyed this pick up anytime book as lots of shortish chapters about all sorts of freaky and inexplicable things going on in this world of ours. I particularly liked the chapters about the Mary Celeste and other ships where all crew have mysteriously disappeared. Very spooky and what could be the explanation? Very mind boggling and riveting. Recommended.
Loved it!! I have always had an interest in the paranormal/ unexplained, after reading this book I am most definitely going to read the rest of his books. I have never read a book like this (non fiction) from cover to cover (including the Thanks page) but this book kept me interested right to the very last word.
I can't get enough of John Pinkney - ghosts, ufos, uncanny occurrences, and more psychic predictions and coincidences. The only complaint I had was that he doubled up on a couple of stories