This book was both informative and entertaining. Nickell examines a number of historical mysteries. These mysteries include the disappearance of Ambrose Bierce mentioned in the title, the authenticity of historical artifacts alleged to have belonged to Daniel Boone and others, establishing the identity of Nazi war criminals, and several more. These cases are rather disparate, but Nickell uses them to illustrate the common use of the investigative method in historical studies. I enjoyed reading this book quite a lot. This is no dry academic treatise: it reads a lot more like a good-paced detective novel. Rather than an just describing the methodology of historical investigations, Nickell shows it through entertaining case studies. I learned a lot about how historians investigate questions, as well.

This really is invaluable to anyone interested in researching paranormal claims. Full of humor, references and suggestions, it's like a gigantic handbook, or operations manual for the paranormally inclined. Told from a skeptical point of view, the insight and commentary is enlightening. A must-have in the library of anyone who has an interest in all aspects of the supernatural.

Ed Nickell has compiled an engrossing collection of crimes that used the help of psychics. Each chapter explores a case that was sensational and somewhere along the investigation a psychic got involved. Most of these cases deal with murders, some are solved and others left opened. However, none of the solved cases were helped by the psychics in any fashion. This skeptical and scientific book shows that the psychics' contributions are often exaggarated or made-up. At the end of the book are several appendices that show how little faith police forces really have in these psychics. If you ever wondered about the claims of psychic crimesolvers, read this book and get the whole story. You won't get it from the psychics.

Once again, Joe Nickel, with John F. Fischer, shows that he is a researcher and investigator with few peers. He has tackled several "unexplained" mysteries, and explained them.

Using available-- if not common-- historical records, as well as first-hand investigations where possible, Nickel has managed to explain such mysteries as the Crystal Skull, the "moving" coffins of the Barbados Vault, and specific cases of Spontaneous Human Combustion. These are just three examples of some of the cases investigated and fully explained within the pages of this book.

This book is a must for those who are truly interested in learning about the world's mysteries, rather than blindly believing the claims of credulous writers who simply wish to sell books to... well, credulous readers.

Joe Nickell shows that he is neither a fanatical skeptic nor a quack paranormal investigator in this sometimes humorous look at the occult mysteries. What instantly got my attention was his debunking of so called ghost hunters with "a psychic in tow", which is exactly how I feel about them. If people state the supernatural is visible physically, then science and forensics should be able to prove these claims. If not then these claims are a hoax. Mr. Nickell does an excellent job of pointing out these hoaxes. All in all this book is a must for true paranormal investigators who prefer to apply science and common sense to claims, instead of unproven flim flam like psychic abilities in their research. Mr. Nickell is a true "ghost hunter" and this is a great book to take along any "chase".

I would have to agree somewhat with the last reviewer.

I like to read both paranormal/strange occurence books and debunking/skeptical books to get both sides of the story.

Unfortunately for the Nickell, debunking camp, they always seem to be a bit more hysterical in their denials and more willing to bend the evidence to support their beliefs than the people they are trying to discredit.

Some of the mysteries that he investigates he does a pretty good job on and provides reasonable explanations for. Others, where he can't prove any clear fraud or provide a reasonable explanation for, he resorts to the old 'I don't think it could have happened, so it didn't' arguement, or provides explanations that couldn't possibly be true, such as the Doug/Dave claim to have produced hundreds of crop circles, rather than just saying the verdict is still out.

I love mysteries and I love more a good explanation for them. This is about 1/2 way there. There are some good explanations, excellent bibliography (for further studies) and a lot of arrogant, patronising statements which are there, seemingly, just to show Joe Nickells brillance and superiority to the poor benighted fools that might believe differently than him.

All in all, not a bad book, and the bibliographies at the chapter ends are worth the price alone.

Despite the title, readers looking for a book that proves Mulder right and Scully wrong are going to be disappointed. Nickell agrees that "the truth is out there"--he just thinks that it's a lot more mundane than most people realize.

Nickell investigates 47 "mysteries," including the Turin Shroud, spontaneous human combustion, crop circles, the Oak Island treasure, the Flatwoods UFO monster, the Roswell flying saucer crash and an assortment of hauntings, miracles and lake monsters. True believers be warned: Nickell concludes that each of these events can be explained rationally and without resort to space aliens or the supernatural.

Nickell has an agreeable style, although at times it's a bit academic. He doesn't talk down to his readers--he thinks that each mystery is worth investigating carefully and he is clearly having fun with his work. In his own words, "if we steer between the extremes of gullibility and dismissiveness--in other words, if our minds are neither too open nor too closed--we may learn more about our world and ourselves. We may even have some fun doing it" (p. 135). I'm a card-carrying skeptic, so I love this stuff, but I think that an open-minded "true believer" might enjoy this book as well.

If you like "Real-Life X-Files," I recommend any of Nickell's other books ("Secrets of the Supernatural," "Entities" and "Ambrose Bierce is Missing"), as will as Hogart and Hutchinson's "Bizarre Beliefs." Each tells the skeptic's side of the story, but each is open minded and entertaining.

I read Fate and Fortian Times every month so I am definitely not a skeptic and fully expected to hate this book. The typical "skeptical inquirer" is a closed minded snob and ultimately just as silly as the most gullible "believer". However, Nickell is an exception. He approaches his cases open minded and without an attitude.

Most important is that this book is a fun read. The topic rarely attracts such coherent yet enjoyable writing. I had a blast reading it.

Compare to some other books on case studies, this book has less cases than others. However, it gives more details and explains by different forensic methods. It helped me a lot with my forensic-case-study paper.

This book gives a broad overview of the various aspect of forensic science. There is not a lot of depth on some topics but there are a lot of references for further reading.

Good reading cover to cover. A little dry through the fingerprint section. Good case studies illustrate chapters key points. I think this books greatest strength is that all information is referenced at the end of the book if further study is required. Also "recommended reading" is provided at the end of each chapter to allow the reader to explore interests if desired. Information is one step up from what might be provided in police academy coursework.

_Camera Clues_ is an excellent reference for gleening clues from photographs and for serving as a basis for continued library-research into the multitude of topics covered. This book is an excellent launch pad from which to delve into the history of 19th century photography in general; some history of photographic equipment; some history of photographic technique; the interactions between general history/context and photography; as well as the more modern topics of trick photography, faked photographs, photographs used as legal evidence, and special effects. Even more important than the excellent summarization of information in this book is the extensive bibilography, as this book is written with full college-level expository-writing endnotes.

I have been restoring and copying my family's 19th-century photographs. Starting out from a basic exposure to 19th-century photographs on paper, glass plates, and metal plates, I learned much about the history of 19th-century photography from this book which is otherwise lost knowledge to the common person in this (almost-)21st-century world. I am actively using the bibliography for further investigations into focused topics.

If there were ever another edition, I would suggest more, more, more of the same, pulling in more history, more explanation of various discarded photographic technologies (e.g., carbrotypes, Lambertypes and the restrictive licensing of their patents), more context, more techniques of tracking down negatives from photography studios of old, etc. I find that there are 2 separate audiences for this book: 1) historical photograph detectives for geneological/etc work after the death of subjects in the photographs and 2) modern trick photography for establishing truthfulness, such as for a legal case. I think that both audiences hunger for greater treatment. I would request splitting this book into 2 volumes, where each volume is double or triple its current size, focusing in depth on the specific needs of those 2 disparate audiences.

The views contained in this feedback are the personal opinions of Dan'l Miller and are in no way connected with his employer or any other organization.

Joe Nickell, in this work, tackles a formidable task. He has looked at a variety of "entities," beings that are outside of normal human experience. Angels, demons, sasquatch, faeries, and extraterrestrials are just some of the beings that he covers, reviewing the folklore of these beings and the actual cause of belief in them.

The only drawback to the book is that he seems to try to cover to much in too limited of a space. Much detail that might be interesting is lost, due to the number of beings covered. Overall, this is a good general overview of the belief systems that revolve around these nonexistent entities.

This is an excellent eye opening book for anyone who is fascinated with stories of ghosts, miracles, UFO's and crop circles. It's a rare book that takes an in depth look and shows the information that most paranormal books leave out. Joe has been investigating paranormal and non paranormal incidents for years. I've heard some people nit pick individual facts that Joe may have gotten wrong, but have yet to find anything that would impugn his integrity. The book is over 200 pages with foot notes and an excellent index. Joe's background knowledge and detective skills are thorough. Joe has a whole lot of books out including a paranormal detective book for kids.

PEN, INK, & EVIDENCE is a good companion volume to Nickell's DETECTING FORGERY: FORENSIC INVESTIGATION OF DOCUMENTS. Like that work, it is apparently targeted towards the beginner (me) and NOT the practicing professional. For example, when an analysis technique is mentioned (and not all techniques are covered) Nickell tends not to go into elaborate detail on the actual practices. The chapter notes serve as a bibliography and are valuable leaping off points for more indepth research and understanding.

This book is divided into five major sections: (I) Writing Instruments, (II) Ink, (III) Paper, (IV) Writing, and (V) Examining Documents. There are three appendices covering (1) Eighteenth Century Scripts, (2) Chronology of Writing and Writing Materials, and (3) Laboratory Identification of Pens, Inks, & Papers.

Nickell has access to a huge array of relevant materials which are profusely included in black and white photographs throughout the book. The photographs are of fair quality and I assume that higher quality photos would result in higher price (duh).

Overall, I found it interesting, useful, and satisfyingly broad in subject coverage. Nickell's writing style is accessible and clear. The ubiquitous use of anecdotes is essential and entertaining. E.g., "Of course, one approach to duplicating security watermarks -- like those placed in prescription blanks for alchohol during Prohibition ... -- was simply to dupe a legitimate paper company intor producing paper bearing watermarks." -pg 85. I want to know more about alcohol prescriptions during Prohibition!