In this collection of tales, classic legends, and long-forgotten lore, best-selling compiler and investigator of the supernatural Joseph A. Citro takes us on a tour of every haunted corner of his native state. Combining the skills of a scrupulous researcher and masterful storyteller, Citro expands the terrain covered in his earlier books, venturing farther than ever before into the realms of the mysterious, the paranormal, and the just plain weird. We tour a home designed by otherworldly architects, pass the night in haunted hotels, visit an antigravity spot, and search for demon-protected treasure. We take a ride on Vermont's only ghost ship, visit tiny fairyland castles, and see a city in the sky. Then we try to determine who -- or what -- is buried in a mysterious grave in Cambridge. We meet the last woman to be hanged in Vermont, explore the strange fate of a girl who heard the music of the spheres, and consider the bashful prophetess who saw God but was too shy to tell anyone. Along the way we encounter villains and visionaries, misfits and monsters, in a state full of egotists, oddballs, and spiritual eccentrics. Skeptics and believers alike will delight in these strange but (maybe) true stories that can be read as regional history, folklore, or simply as entertainment. Guaranteed to amuse, tickle, and terrify!

A "monstrous" tale by Vermont’s master of the macabre. Downsized from his job and dumped by his girlfriend, Harrison Allen longs for a fresh start. Alone, with no prospects or plans, he relocates to a borrowed house on Friars Island in Lake Champlain to relax, contemplate, and begin redefining his life. Then he hears about the monsters... Creatures - perhaps similar to those of Loch Ness - are said to inhabit the murky waters and fogbound marshes of his new island home. His interest piqued, Harrison becomes preoccupied with finding them. But his innocent questions provoke a surprising response: the islanders won't discuss monsters. After Harrison meets the lovely local schoolteacher, Nancy Wells, events inexplicably turn menacing. He suspects he is being watched; he is warned away from an abandoned monastery; and somehow he wins the wrath of a murderous local bully. Then people begin to disappear… and die. Harrison's harmless monster hunt discloses something dark and disturbing beating in the heart of this tiny Vermont town. Malevolent forces, powerful and primitive, propel the unwary couple into a maelstrom of escalating terror. Suddenly they’re targeted by an unstoppable evil never before contemplated and impossible to comprehend. Harrison's "new beginning" is like nothing he'd ever planned. And Lake Monsters ends with a surprise that's shocking, unexpected, and unforgettable.

This finely crafted tour de force is Joseph A. Citro's most ambitious, irreverent and unusual work to date. Sometimes violent, sometimes elegant, Deus-X: The Reality Conspiracy is an electrifying excursion into spiritual terror, blending classic elements of occult horror with nightmarish contemporary themes. Beginning as a mystery, we witness two seemingly unrelated events; in a secret California government installation, a political prisoner is grotesquely executed; and on the East Coast an elderly Vermont farmer vanishes, victim of an otherworldly abduction. Three amateur investigators - a psychologist, a physicist, and a priest - join forces, sharing divergent worldviews to discover the relationship between the two dissimilar events. Stalked by a murderous psychopath bent on stopping them, they encounter UFO's, bizarre religious phenomena, multiple personalities, and overwhelming psychic violence. They are drawn inexorably forward through the gothic halls of a Canadian hospital for elderly and demented priests to the locked chambers of a covert American repository for space age weaponry where they uncover the most sinister application of computer technology since Kubrick's 2001. The trio's efforts ignite a chain reaction of unrelenting terror that eventually explodes like a nuclear bomb! In the devastating climax, we join the characters as they confront an undreamed of physical and philosophical menace that threatens to destroy every notion about good and evil, illuminate the fragile nature of reality, and ultimately subjugate all mankind. The full spectrum of Joseph A. Citro's wild talents as a master storyteller is beautifully displayed in Deus-X. He guides us into a world that's comfortably familiar, yet oddly alien, a world where you can believe your feet are safely under you until something shifts. . .and suddenly nothing is as it seems. Imagination, style and intelligence merge perfectly to make Deus-X as unforgettable as it is entertaining. This superbly literate novel is guaranteed to quicken your pulse, shatter your sleep, and turn all your cherished beliefs upside down.

Points the way to all the tantalizing treats and terrifying treasures that remain tucked away in overlooked museums, private collections, and forgotten recesses of this very special region.

New Englanders are always cursing. But a colorful profanity uttered by some sterotypically tactiturn old Yankee is usually more humorous than menacing. Yet, true maledictions (the opposite of benedicitons) have frequently been spoken on New England soil, curses intended to invoke evil, injury, or total destruction against other people. Stories about preternatural revenge are numerous in Yankee lore, with each New England state providing its favorites. Some are well known, at least regionally. Others are nearly forgotten. Within these pages, renowned storyteller Joseph A. Citro vividly brings these tales to life, letting us decide if these tales of woe were bad luck or ... something else.