Frank Edwards (1) (1908–1967)

Although published almost 50 years ago, I found this book still an entertaining read. The author was a popular radio host and writes in the almost-objective journalistic style. The book is a followup of his previous book "Stranger Than Science". In both these works Edwards provides a compilation of stories containing mysterious or unexplained events arranged loosely by categories such as disappearances, predictions by dreams or ghosts, "talking" animals, mysterious coincidences, psychic evidence, ufo's, etc. Of course it is a little dated; for instance he includes several reports of people being consumed by fires having no apparent cause but never mentions the name we now use for that phenomenon: spontaneous human combustion. He presents the material by reporting the known facts without little sensationalism and lets the reader puzzle over whatever meaning there may be. I don't normally read this type of material so I don't really know if the mysteries of many of his stories were later resolved- certainly some of them _could_ be resolved with today's advanced technology such as DNA analysis. Although some of the events described are from the 1800's there are also a good number from the early 1960's. I rate it 4 stars for its entertainment value and readability.… (mer)