A Review of the Book "Strange, Spooky, and Supernatural" by Mike Browne

Title: Strange, Spooky, and Supernatural

Author: Mike Browne

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

Year: 2024

266 pages

From the Back: Strange, Spooky, and Supernatural is a collection of stories about unusual and enigmatic people, places, and things. The first section explores strange people in history, including the escape artist and occult debunker Harry Houdini; BC resident Taylor Grainger, who left a note saying he was leaving on a spaceship and disappeared; and a legless man known only as Jerome, who was discovered on a Nova Scotia beach in 1863 and was unable to communicate anything about his past.

    The second section, about strange places, embarks on a journey around the world, touching down in locations cloaked in mystery and steeped in spine-chilling stories of hauntings, unexplained deaths, and lost civilizations.

    In the final section, Browne explores mysterious things including the Van Meter Visitor, an unidentified nocturnal creature that terrorized citizens in the small town of Van Meter, Iowa in 1903; the Vampire of Highgate Cemetery, an entity that allegedly haunted the famous cemetery in London during the 1970s; and the Philip Experiment, a 1970s-era parapsychological experiment conducted in Toronto.

Personal Thoughts: Being a fan of spooky true stories, this was a fun book to read. I love listening to Mike Browne on The Dark Poutine podcast (https://darkpoutine.com/) and he writes like he speaks, which means the tales were easy to read. I will say that I prefer his first book, Murder, Madness, and Mayhem but I'm not sure if I could put my finger on why. Perhaps because that book focused on Canadian events whereas this new book contained stories from around the world. I'm hoping Browne writes another book as I do enjoy reading his writing, but hopefully he returns back to telling Canadian tales.