Customer Reviews

In the Realm of Ghosts and Hauntings

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is very possibly the worst researched book on hauntings I've ever seen. It gets details wrong that even a novice doing a cursory internet search would have discoverd. No effort was made to get the information right. For example in The Ghost of Flight 401 he gets the date of the plane crash wrong (it was Dec 29th 1972, not December 19th), the name of the co-pilot is wrong (It's Stockstill not Stocl), the name of flight engingeer who is also one of the ghosts is wrong (It's Don Repo, not Dan) and he puts things in quotes that have no sources and are not quoted in any other account of the story. The same is true in the Borley Rectory story. It gets the dates of Harry Price's investigation wrong (it started in 1929, not 1937), it talks about records of a nun and monk being killed in 1534, even though the results of Harry Price's investigation was that this incident had NEVER taken place in England... not in 1534 or any other year, and it gets what was written on the walls wrong, which is pretty hard to believe considering that there are photographs of the wall writing available everywhere,...everywhere except in this book. This book is a waste of your time. DO NOT BUY IT. I wish I hadn't! I give it the rating of one star because the Amazon system says you have give it a rating.

Painstakingly researched, compiled and written by E. Randall Floyd, In The Realm Of Ghosts And Hauntings is a truly fascinating and highly recommended anthology of folklore stories showcasing more than forty famous as well as obscure supernatural occurrences and encounters with spirits. Ranging from the story of a haunted Alcatraz prison, to the legend of the Flying Dutchman, to ghosts of Gettysburg, In The Realm Of Ghosts And Hauntings provides contemporary readers with a spine-chilling introduction into the veiled and often terrifying world of supernatural encounters.

When it comes to books that deal with ghosts there are basically two kinds of authors. The first type goes out into the field, investigates the site and talks to witnesses. The second type relies almost exclusively on secondary sources and simply retells the story, sometimes putting his new version together by reading several other works on the haunting in question. This book and author fall decidedly in the second category. I would say that this book comes exclusively from the second category but there are a few stories written in a way that makes it seem as if the author may have done a few interviews on his own. The stories are also very superficial in this book with forty-nine stories crammed into one hundred and eighty-three pages. With an average length of less that four pages per story there just isn't much room for an in depth study of the case being discussed.

This book is further plagued by typographical errors which admittedly are not the fault of the author but are nevertheless distracting and should be corrected in future editions. There are also some historical errors, most notably the dates of the Truman Presidency. Again, this is not a fatal error but these types of mistakes tend to make the reader cast a wary eye on all of the information in such a book.

All of that said, I must admit that I found this to be a very enjoyable little book. Normally these secondary retellings of other people's work turn me completely off but for some reason I liked this book. I can't put my finger quite on the reason but I found that I enjoyed this book very much. It may have been the author's writing style, which I found to be very engaging and pleasant. It may have been the excellent mix of locations, which covered much of the United States and England. Or it may have been that the author just has an innate ability to spin a good ghost yarn. Whatever the reason, this book which is of a type that normally sends me into yawning fits kept my interest and even seemed to shed some new light on many stories that I had read about many times before.

I can't really recommend this book for the serious ghost story aficionado who is searching for new investigations into various hauntings for there is little or none of that to be found in this work. I can however say that this is a marvelous book for reading while all alone on a stormy evening. Just make sure that you have some candles ready in case of a power failure for I don't really think you will relish a night in the dark after taking this journey with Mr. Floyd.