‘Passing Strange’ spooky good time

“Passing Strange: True Tales of New England Hauntings and Horrors” by Joseph Citro, Chapters Publishing, 320 pages, $19.95

Whether you believe in specters and ghosts, Joseph Citro’s collection of the spooky is entertaining. He has gathered 40 stories of the unbelievable, some sure to raise the hair on the back of your neck.

Among other adventures, some truer than others, Citro explores long-forbidden Yankee ghost towns, meets the mysterious Machiasport Madonna, relives the murder of a shrew wife in Islesboro’s Dark Harbor, and visits a ghost house in Rockport.

Written as if being told around a campfire, Citro’s accounts are a blend of the real and unreal. He said he attempted to document every story, but in some cases the stories are simply that: tales passed down from generation to generation.

The reader may choose to believe them or not.

This is not to say that the horrors in Citro’s book are entirely fabricated. No matter what strange events writers may concoct, equally strange — or stranger — events have occurred in Maine. They are recorded in newspapers, diaries and the folk tales of the region.

With a gentle sense of humor, Citro tells each tale, such as this excerpt from “Danville’s Divine Comedy.”

“John P. Weeks died, but he just wouldn’t stay dead. And all the strange events following his demise on July 16, 1883, are true. To prove it, a corroborating document exists, written in Week’s own hand. It bears the signatures of 31 Vermonters. Fifteen of them were eyewitnesses to the miracle, including four church deacons, three ministers and three medical doctors.”

Citro said he has not embellished the stories he gathered for his collection. “I have only drawn upon written records and oral testimony to present other people’s stories in my own way.” He describes himself as an editor.

“Even if you militantly disbelieve in ghosts and their kin, that need not inhibit your enjoyment of these tales,” he said.

The book covers just about every creepy, crawly subject. There are bodies that won’t stay in their graves, spiritual encounters, haunted houses, vampires, and cemeteries that won’t stop moaning.

A handy guide lets the reader pick out a specific town or state for ghost hunting. Maine has many entries, beaten out only by Connecticut and Massachusetts. New England, said Citro, “is still the place that jailed women for witchcraft, cowered at strange lights in the sky and bestowed the title `haunted’ on any house full of inexplicable disturbances.”

The book was written as much for fun as goose bumps. So what’s a little shiver down your spine? After all, there are no such thing as ghosts, right?