Kolchak: The Night Stalker Casebook

This second anthology of original short stories featuring Jeff Rice's intrepid journalist-turned-supernatural sleuth (after 2006's Kol-chak: The Night Stalker Chronicles) is even better than the first; the writing is consistently good, and most of the contributors success-fully evoke the spirit and atmosphere of the short-lived cult classic TV series of the 1970s. As with the show, Kolchak routinely runs into a wide variety of supernatural terrors, ranging from ghosts to monster fish, and uses his quick wits and resourcefulness to sur-vive. The character's trademark deadpan humor is also amply in evidence, and authors such as P.N. Elrod, John Everson and John Ostrander especially distinguish themselves. Fans of the more recent ABC tv revival should especially enjoy Mark Dawidziak's ""Cancel-lation,"" in which gory deaths mar the production of a similar show, which has retained the real Kolchak as a consultant.