cover image Mysterious Realms

Mysterious Realms

. Prometheus Books, $35.98 (221pp) ISBN 978-0-87975-765-6

In this casebook, the coauthors of Secrets of the Supernatural investigate 10 familiar paranormal, historical and forensic mysteries. Arguing that ``mysteries should neither be fostered nor suppressed but rather should be solved,'' Nickell and Fischer often rely on the theory that the simplest explanation has the greatest merit. Cases debunked here include visitations during the past 100 years of the ``Gray Lady'' ghost in a house in Frankfort, Ky., and the contention that John F. Kennedy was shot by a Soviet assassin who looked like Lee Harvey Oswald. The authors identify the 1912 discovery of the Piltdown Man in Sussex, England, as a hoax perpetrated by fossil collector Charles Dawson, and offer rational explanations for the periodic liquifaction of a vial in a Naples church said to contain the blood of St. Januarius and for the phenomenon of ``psychic vision.'' The arguments presented are convincing, if not conclusive. Photos not seen by PW. (Dec.)