Dig up the men who tried to dig up Lincoln. Mull over the Mad Gasser of Mattoon and the 1977 thunderbird infestation, from a safe distance. Watch in horror as one of the greatest maritime disasters in U.S. history occurs twenty feet from the banks of the Chicago River or follow the course of the blimp crash that convinced a downtown bank employee that it was raining hell. Try not to blink as towns washed away by floods and shrines covered over by condominiums are dragged back from the margins of history into the center of the page, where they belong. After all, reasons author Bryan Alaspa, if the pope was eager to stop by the House of Crosses during his visit to Chicago, surely it is worth a look. Just beware: a quick glance into this book and you might not look up until you've read the whole gripping and grin-inspiring collection.

Bryan W. Alaspa is a Chicago native and professional writer. He is the author of the nonfiction books Ghosts of St. Louis: The Lemp Mansion and Other Eerie Tales, Chicago Crime Stories: Rich Gone Wrong, Chicago Disasters and Forgotten Tales of Illinois. He is also the author of the fiction novels Ballad of the Blue Denim Gang, The Vanished Child, Dust, Rig, Gone, Sin-Eater: Part One and After the Snowfall. He also writes about baseball for one online publication and writes arts and entertainment articles for another. He still hopes to one day write the definitive book about Chicago.