Necessary Disclaimer - THERE IS NOTHING PARANORMAL IN THIS BOOK!

This is not a spoiler - given how this book is marketed, this is something anyone interested in reading it should know. It contains zero paranormal content. If, like me, you come to this book thinking you'll get some good Kansas ghost stories, you'll be sorely disappointed. Whoever decided to market the book this way did a serious disservice to the author and any interested readers!

What this book is, is a collection of unrelated historical tidbits about Kansas. That's it.

As history... it's crap. There's really no other way to say it. It's shallow and it's very clear that the author either doesn't know, or chose to ignore, the difference between genuine unsolved mysteries and completely unsubstantiated rumor.

In her attempt to make all the historical tidbits "mysterious," the author ham-handledly asks intentionally leading questions - many of which actively contradict evidence she presents just prior to asking them - and suggests indefensibly broad conclusions. She insists on playing armchair pop psychologist - badly - and only in a pathetically obvious attempt to make pretty straight-forward stories seem fraught. She sets up all kinds of false dichotomies. She presents rampant speculation as though it's legitimate historical interpretation. She doesn't cite any of her research sources within the body of the book, there are no foot- or end-notes, just a small bibliography at the end... It's ridiculous!

Honestly, it detracts from the stories she tells. This could be a really interesting book of lesser-known historical events in Kansas; instead, it's a hot mess.

About the only entertainment I got from reading this book was the schadenfreude of witnessing the logical contortions the author goes through to try and force these stories to fit her pre-determined mold of "Myth & Mystery".

To be a bit more kind - I don't know if this was all the author's decision or if there was pressure from her publisher to fit this book into a desired niche market. In any case, it's not a good book.

Ironically, the only sections that succeeded in piquing my interest were the chapters on the founding of Nicodemus, KS, and the one about the orphan trains. Despite the author's embarrassing attempts to inject "mystery" into these chapters, both are simple historical accounts of events that aren't widely known. If the whole book had been more like these chapters it would have been substantially improved. It still might not have been very good history, but it would have been a much better book! ( )