The Complete Idiot's Guide to Unsolved Mysteries

As my title blurb states this "Idiot's Guide" is an excellent primer to all the principal conundrums throughout the centuries. Six broad areas are explored: -- Disappearances: ships, planes, peoples and lost colonies. -- People Power: ESP, fortune tellers, prophets and stone monuments. -- The Big Questions: where we came from, Atlantis, extraterrestrial intelligence and astrology. -- Human Events: spiritualism, gurus/charlatans, the Lindbergh baby, unsolved crimes, Lizzie Borden and Mata Hari. -- Inhuman Events: UFOs and alien abduction (including Roswell and Area 51, of course) -- Unaswered Questions: the undead and inhuman (including werewolves and real-life ghouls like Ed Gein and Dahmer), cryptozoology (Bigfoot, Loch Ness monster, etc.) and the mystery of who William Shakespeare really was. The book also features a handful of appendixes and a helpful index. There are no color illustrations but there are a smattering of b & w pictures, illustrations, charts, maps etc. The cartooney icons typical to "Idiot's Guides" are everywhere, however, and help the reader glean the info needed. The book is big and runs almost 400 pages, but with such a broad subject it can only go into so much detail on any given specific. Still, some subjects are covered fairly extensively; for instance, Lizzie Borden, the Lindbergh baby and Roswell are all given around 12 pages, which is enough to establish the basics of the cases topped with some detail. Unfortunately cryptozoology is also covered in 12 pages and therefore limits the text on each 'monster' to a page or two. Still, if you need some quick info on, say, Bigfoot the book provides it. I mainly wrote this review to counteract the other reviewer who gave it an unjust low rating. I give the book 5 Stars because it is well-written, well-ordered and accomplishes exactly what it sets out to be -- a primer to many of history's most baffling mysteries. If you want more detail simply go to a more specific source. This is not the type of book to read cover-to-cover (which is implied by the other reviewer), although you can do that if you want; it's meant for the reader to skim through and glean the info that piques his/her interest. It's also handy as a reference if you need quick, accurate info on any of the given subjects.