Haunted America: Star-Spangled Supernatural Stories by Marvin with Kaye KayeMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
A collection of supernatural stories from American authors ranging from the 1920s to the 1990s. Many famous names are featured here; Lovecraft, Poe, Hawthorne, Matheson, Robert E. Howard among others not so well-known. Very few of the stories are actually horror stories, with most being just tales with the ghostly element put very matter-of-factly in them, and with some where the supernatural element is barely there at all.
Almost all anthologies are hit and miss, and this one does have a few good ones, but most of them are rather middling. It's almost as if the editor liked the author him/herself and selected a story based on name recognition alone.
However a special mention goes to the closing story "Another Chance for Casey" by Larry Siegel, a somewhat sequel to the famous poem "Casey at Bat". It's told with such charm, wit and cleverness that it really put a smile on my face (and the reason I'm giving this anthology three stars instead of two). The story begins in prose and ends in verse like the original poem, if you can seek this story out it's highly recommended.
The book ends with a list of supposedly haunted places across the United States, useful if you're an amateur ghost hunter.
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