Chicago Haunts: Ghostlore of the Windy City

This book is wonderful.The stories are riviting and often heartbreaking, the layout is easy to read, and Bielski's command of the English language is appreciated. The photos are clear and wonderful.It is obvious that Bielski devoted countless hours of research and interviews to write this book. The result is pure enjoyment.If it's spooky in Chicago, it's in this book.No stone is left unturned, from the Fort Dearborn massacre to the Biograph theater where Public Enemy #1 was gunned down to a fun little part about ghostlore commonly told by Chicago's children, such as "I believe in Mary Worth" and "Bloody Mary Bloody Mary Bloody Mary". :)This book is a fascinating glimpse into the Chicago that most people never know. Buy it, buy it, buy it!

Yikes! Great, great, great writing that is a Chicago "must-have" for historians and legend seekers alike. Our younger daughter loved it, recommended it to others and it has taken on a life of it's own among young readers. Of course, we ive just a stone's throw from the shuttered Chicago_Read center, as haunted a site as anything that Hollywood can conjure up: a potters field, graveyard for Chicago Fire victims, and a sanitarium. Bulldozers unearhted lots of remains during the work for the Dunnig Shopping Center and appartments; this book should have tipped them on the creepiness of their efforts!

This book is fantastic! I took a ghost tour around Halloween and met someone who told me about this book. Of course, this is the revised addition. Not only do I own both copies, I have purchased many as gifts! You don't need to pay someone for a ghost tour. Buy the book and gather your friends and have a wonderful time! For those of you who are afraid, no need to be. This isn't a horror book! Chances of seeing a ghost, depends ... do you believe?

So many of these ghostly compendiums are sloppily researched and written for the lowest common denominator. Not so with this book. Bielski is first and foremost a historian, a "ghost scholar" second. Her stories of these Chicago legends, many of them done to death (sorry), resonate with a scholar's respect for research and a sociologist's eye for the big picture. A ripping good read.

This book is as thoroughly compelling and insightful as it is entertaining and frightening. It is quite obvious that the author is well-versed in the ghostlore and history of her big-shouldered hometown. The research is painstaking in detail and reveals a book that is definitely not the work of an amatuer ghost chaser but rather that of a learned professional. The work is serious yet lively and engaging. It is by far the best book ever published on Chicago ghostlore and paranormality. Not an after dark book for the faint of heart. Two thumbs up.