Books: The Phantoms of Dixie by Hans Holzer

I love a good ghost story, and I'm originally from the South, so when I read about this old out-of-print book I decided I had to give it a try. I found a copy in good condition courtesy of Alibris and ordered it, and I have to say, I do love the smell of old books (this one being a retired library copy). As for the book itself, well . . .

In Phantoms of Dixie, Holzer covers ghost stories from 11 states (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas x2, Virginia). I put the "x2" next to Texas because it actually gets two chapters. Each of the rest of the states only gets one, and in some there is only one or two stories for that state, which is a bit of a let down. All of North Carolina's chapter is taken up with the Maco Light and is in large part more about the huge media coverage Holzer and his wife received when they went to investigate it, right down to the newspaper clippings. I mean, you know there have to be more stories than that . . . somewhere . . .

In truth, it's a slim volume and the tales contained within are not terribly indepth. More than haunted houses and such, Holzer talks about specific people who have encountered psychic and paranormal phenomena in various locations. The book itself was originally published in 1972, and Holzer eventually went on to have something like 100 titles to his name (most famously he investigated Amityville), so one supposes that if he were putting out so many books, they couldn't any of them be particularly long or involved. But the end result is a kind of gloss, almost a weak index that makes me want to go find other books about these places, or maybe even look up some of the people (are any of them still alive?) . . . It's the kind of book that sends you scurrying to the Internet for more information.

Still, Phantoms is a good book for those who might be curious but also a little bit wary. Nothing in this book is particularly fright inducing, so one can read it with both interest and ease. In all it's good for toe-dipping but fails to make much of a splash.