Passing Strange - by Joseph Citro (Paperback)

About the Book

New England's dark hills, fogbound coasts, and hidden villages have inspired generations of writers such as Hawthorne, Lovecraft, and King. But these authors' dark imaginings pale when compared to little-known but well-documented and true tales. In this delightfully spine-tingling tour of all six New England states, Citro chronicles the haunted history and folklore of a region steeped in hardship and horror, humor and pathos.

Book Synopsis

New England's dark hills, fogbound coasts, and hidden villages have inspired generations of writers such as Hawthorne, Lovecraft, and King.

But these authors' dark imaginings pale when compared to little-known but well-documented and true tales. The volume investigates forgotten episodes of regional wonder, gathering accounts of spectral effigies haunting an 1850 Stratford parsonage.

Citro balances rustic folklore against sworn testimony, examining historical records from eighteenth-century vampire exhumations in Rhode Island to mechanical miracles attempted on Massachusetts hilltops.

Mountain townships yield persistent reports of elusive hairy wanderers, while coastal hamlets confront inexplicable lights, cursed settlements, and phantom vessels adrift upon the sound.

In this delightfully spine-tingling tour of all six New England states, Citro chronicles the haunted history and folklore of a region steeped in hardship and horror, humor and pathos.

• Ghost Stories: In Chittenden, Vermont, Civil War investigator Colonel Henry Steel Olcott conducts a ten-week inquiry into the Eddy brothers, documenting hundreds of apparitions emerging from a tiny upstairs cabinet.


• Unexplained Phenomena: A 1955 domestic deluge in Windsor, Vermont, drenches furniture and drawers without plumbing leaks or basement dampness, defying plumbers, engineers, and municipal inspectors alike.


• Supernatural Encounters: During a frantic weekend in April 1977, four independent teenagers in Dover, Massachusetts, encounter a hairless, peach-skinned creature with glowing eyes perched upon roadside stone walls.


• Historical Mysteries: Between 1945 and 1950, five people vanish without a trace along the wooded trails of Vermont's Glastenbury Mountain, confounding bloodhounds, military aircraft, and thousands of searchers.


• Also by This Author: Green Mountain Ghosts, Ghouls & Unsolved Mysteries.

Review Quotes

"The formidable storytelling skills of Citro...make this volume a diverse and compelling read." Chattanooga Free Press

"Spine-tingling tales of New England hauntings are captured in over forty colorful short stories. All six New England states were toured in the compilation of this collection: the result is a diverse and compelling collection." Midwest Book Review

"Written with wit and verve...it's a celebration of the mysterious nature of the human imagination." Burlington Free Press