Having previously read Paul Steward’s Tales of Dirt, Danger, and Darkness, I expected his next book to be filled with scary stories of what can happen deep underground. What I got from True Tales of Terror in the Caves of the World was that and more.

First, the main thrust of this book answers the question: Just how bad can the world beneath the surface be? Summing up the answers: Very bad. Expect horrific murders, psychotic acts, sadistic torture and suicides mixed in with the gentler side of humanity such as gangsters, common crooks and pirates. Just your average day underground.

Aside from the terror, this book has a surprising educational bonus. In the process of taking you to caves around the world, Steward teaches you fascinating bits and pieces of cave-borne history and geology. For example, a cave and its cannibal inhabitants played a role in the ongoing development of criminal law during the reign of King James VI in 16th Century Scotland. In 1911 of one of the last completely isolated Native Americans, a Yahi Indian who had been hidden from the world, walked out of the Sierra Nevada forest and into the modern world. His few remaining people had been wiped out in a massacre in, you guessed it, a cave. Did you know that Missouri has 5,600 caves? Or that 100 years after Mark Twain wrote about Tom Sawyer and the scary cave in Hannibal, three Hannibal boys walked into a cave never to be seen again?

Steward has done a great job of mixing enlightening tidbits with entertaining stories. A must read for anyone interested in the world’s caves.