BookBrains Press - Exploring Unsolved Mysteries

You’ve likely heard the story: on a cold December night in 1926, the world’s most famous mystery writer vanished, leaving behind only an abandoned car at the edge of a chalk pit and a real-life puzzle that would captivate the public for decades to come. Agatha Christie, carrying nothing but an attaché case, kissed her daughter good night and sped away from the home in England that she shared with her husband, Col. Archibald Christie. What followed was over 1,000 police officers, 15,000 volunteers, and even airplanes combing the countryside in what became one of the largest manhunts in British history. Agatha Christie at Cockington Court in 1912, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons The irony was delicious: it was like a plot from one of her own novels. Here, the creator of Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple—a woman who built her career on unraveling mysteries—became the subject of an enigma that remains unresolved to this day. Her disappearance made headlines across the globe, including th...

Final installment in our four-part series exploring the mysterious world of ghost photography Throughout our exploration of ghost photography, we've examined fraudulent spirit photographs, accidental apparitions captured on film, and Jessie Adelaide Middleton's remarkable collection of ghost images from the early 20th century. For our final installment, we delve into what might be the most thoroughly documented case in Middleton's works: the chilling haunting of "Wessex Manor" and its infamous ghostly monk, captured in one of the most unsettling paranormal photographs ever published. The Photograph That Haunts Two Books In The White Ghost Book (1916) [Available at Amazon ], Jessie Adelaide Middleton included a startling photograph showing what she described as "the ghost of a gigantic monk." She noted the entity appeared "tall and grim, with a most malignant face" with "the panelling of the room plainly visible through him." This s...

Third in a four-part series exploring the mysterious world of ghost photography In our previous explorations of ghost photography, we've examined both the deliberate frauds of professional spirit photographers and the more intriguing accidental captures of apparent apparitions. Now, we turn to a fascinating historical perspective through the work of Jessie Adelaide Middleton, whose early 20th-century investigations provide a window into how ghost photography was viewed during an era when the boundaries between science and spiritualism were still being negotiated. Jessie Adelaide Middleton: Edwardian Ghost Hunter In an age when paranormal investigation was dominated by men, Jessie Adelaide Middleton established herself as a meticulous chronicler of ghostly phenomena. Unlike many of her contemporaries who approached the subject with either blind faith or dismissive skepticism, Middleton brought journalistic integrity to her investigations, documenting supernatural accounts across ...

Second in a four-part series exploring the mysterious world of ghost photography In our previous exploration of spirit photography, we examined the deliberate attempts by Victorian mediums to capture images of the deceased. These staged photographs, while compelling to many grieving families of the era, were largely debunked as darkroom trickery and double exposures. But what about those eerie images that appear when no deception was intended? The unexplained figures that materialize in photographs taken by ordinary people who had no expectation of capturing anything supernatural? When Ghosts Photobomb Unlike spirit photography, deliberately created by mediums claiming special abilities, ghost photographs emerge accidentally. A family snaps a vacation photo, and only upon developing it notices a strange figure in the background. A real estate photographer captures an interior shot of an empty house, only to find a face peering from a window when reviewing the images. These unexpect...

First in a four-part series exploring the mysterious world of ghost photography Have you ever wondered if it's possible to photograph a ghost? In our modern age of smartphone filters and digital manipulation, it's easy to dismiss spectral images as obvious fakes. But there was a time when the appearance of mysterious figures in photographs caused genuine wonder and sparked heated debates among scientists, spiritualists, and skeptics alike. When the Dead Appeared on Film The world of ghost photography is divided into two distinct categories: spirit photography (deliberately created by mediums claiming to capture the deceased) and ghost photography (apparitions inadvertently captured by ordinary people). Before we can evaluate potentially authentic ghost photographs, we must first understand the controversial beginnings of spirit photography—an industry built on both profound grief and questionable techniques. In the wake of the devastating American Civil War, when families...

Our meticulously restored edition of  The White Ghost Book  (available at  Amazon ) features over 40 illustrations and over 600 annotations, providing contemporary readers with the historical and cultural context to appreciate Middleton's unique contribution to supernatural literature. This isn't merely a collection of invented tales—it represents a journalistic approach to documenting what Middleton and many of her contemporaries believed were genuine encounters with the spirit world. In our last two posts, we shared a ghost story from Jessie Adelaide Middleton's renowned book of true ghost stories,  The Grey Ghost Book  (available at  Amazon ) and from Middleton's  Another Grey Ghost Book  (available at  Amazon ). This week, we share a story from Middleton's The White Ghost Book (available at Amazon ).  Since we shared a student story from Oxford University last week, we thought we'd share a student story from Cambridge University thi...