If you like the "they done it with mirrors" literature, this is good reading, although author Joe Nickell deliberately picks the silliest "miracles" and debunks them, thus showing how stupid belief in the miraculous is. And while he sniffs at the faulty recherches of the "miraculists", he himself cites an example of an old "folk tale": "For example, there is the story of castle Lockenhaus in Austria, whose sixtenth-century-owner, a countess Bathory, was rumored to have murdered young girls and drunk there blood." Quite right! Only it wasn't Castle Lockenhaus, but Castle Tzetsche, which isn't in Austria, but in Hungary, Countess Erszebeth Bathory was not "rumored" to have killed young girls, but was convicted in public trial before the Hungarian King Matthias (the case of the Blood Countess is famous in Austria and Hungary and much written about by scholars) and she did not drink the blood of sixhundred servant maids, but, being a sexual sadist and a lesbian, tortured them to death. So much for thorough investigation, Mr. Nickell! Still, the book makes interesting reading, especially for a Protestant like me who has always looked askance at weeping icons und "holy" relics, and the scientific explanations of how some miracles are done are most interesting. And, I must admit, Mr. Nickell is fair in so far as he notes that the Catholic Church is not always happy with such miracles. Still, I feel this is the counterpart to the miraculist who will believe anything, proven or not. Joe Nickell disbelieves in anything, proven or not.