Paul Steward’s previous book, Tales of Dirt, Danger, and Darkness, is a book of grim short stories. Many of the tales in this new book are true only in the sense that Steward did not make them up himself; many should be called legends. But an impressive amount of research, documented by the extensive list of references, has produced sixty tales, of a page or so each, without mining the lode of caving accidents. Massacres, murders, suicides, mysterious disappearances. Well-written, if you like that sort of thing.