Herbert Genzmer is an author of non-fiction, novels, anthologies and biographies. Ulrich Hellenbrand is a freelance author of numerous books and is a journalist. He has written screenplays and radio plays. This was a gift book.

This gift book is large and heavy. Color photos make up nearly half the book. Its back cover has this description: “Our world is full of mysterious places, stories and phenomena about which we still know very little, even after many years of investigation. This book is devoted to legendary objects like the Holy Grail and looks at mysterious remains indicating the presence of highly developed technologies in the ancient world. It investigates beasts like the yeti which are still tracked down by cryptozoologists, and many others besides. Make your way through this survey of mysteries of the world and find interesting answers and clarifications for questions that have long excited humankind.” I advise a reader to take the word “clarifications” with a big grain of salt – “descriptions” would be more accurate.

Most of these mysterious places or events are described in only 2 or 3 pages. In the following the number of items is shown before the chapter names: 21 Mysterious Places, 10 Mysterious Artifacts, 30 Myth or Reality? (given as 6 Legendary Places, People & Things, 13 Miracles & Mysteries, and 11 Alchemy, Magic, & Curses), 32 Parasciences (given as 20 Parapsychology & 12 Cryptozoology), 22 Contemporary Mysteries (given as 11 Medical & Psychological Phenomena & 11 Strange Forces). I have never before seen such a complete collection of “Mysteries of the World.” This book is a coffee-table book one can pick up when one has a few spare minutes to kill while waiting, or to read straight through if you are a fan of such items. Since I didn’t know whether a category choice of fiction or non-fiction would be more appropriate, I decided that my best book-type category for this collection would be essays, of which it has very many short ones. But I enjoyed it and I found myself chuckling over quite a few of these brief “essays” of mysterious places, stories and phenomena. Enjoy!