Book Review: Strange Things in the Woods: A Collection of Terrifying Stories

Beyond the Fray Publishing is becoming the go-to place for creepy, allegedly true stories of encounters with monster and other high strangeness. Founder Shannon Legro is a self-professed collector of such stories and let's face it, whether you believe or not, they're fun to read.

The publishing house's latest book, Steve Stockton's Strange Things in the Woods, is just that -- a collection of strange encounters in the woods as told by the people who experienced them. And there's a good 85 tales in this volume, each worthy of a few pages of print.

Now, these stories aren't terrifying, at least to this reader, who's experienced his fair share of strange things in the woods, but they are all entertaining. And some do make you go hmmm, as that old song once said.

The encounters range from the explainable (a firefly caught in a spider's web) to the not so explainable (a possible phantom lumberjack in the deep woods), but none stretch the credibility of what someone could believe they've encountered while hiking or camping.

As I said, none of the tales are too long, so this is a great book to pick up when you have a moment or two between appointments, or while waiting for dinner. I also tore through several tales at a time while chilling in the backyard. If you're a fan of spooky stories, this volume doesn't disappoint.

Between Beyond the Fray: Bigfoot and Strange Things in the Woods, Shannon and Beyond the Fray Publishing have a good thing going for us fans of high strangeness. This one's a Good!