The Mysterious Stranger, published posthumously in 1916, belongs to Twain's "dark" period. At the time of composition, Twain had suffered a series of painful physical, economic, and emotional losses. In his chilling tale, a stranger named Satan visits an old Austrian town to convince the religious faithful that there is no God, and "nothing exists; all is a dream."

Bill and Erica Smith of the Smith-&-Smith Paranormal Investigation Agency are back, and they are as busy as ever as the winter of 2026-27 proves especially busy. At first, in January of 2027, they are asked to investigate hauntings in the famed Museum of Modern Art in which they confront the spirit of a 16th Century tyrant who has eyes on taking over the body of their young son; Oscar. Then, in February of 2027 they are called to investigate the hauntings in a ritzy mansion in Connecticut and they discover that this case has eerie parallels to their favorite ghost movie and its sequels that they both liked growing up in the 1980's and they find out that this case is more than they bargained for.

M. R. James wrote his ghost stories to entertain friends on Christmas Eve, and they went on to both transform and modernise a genre. James harnesses the power of suggestion to move from a recognisable world to one that is indefinably strange, and then unforgettably terrifying. Sheets, pictures, carvings, a dolls house, a lonely beach, a branch tapping on a window, ordinary things take on more than a tinge of dread in the hands of the original master of suspense.

Evie Barnum is in charge of her brother's museum, a place teeming with scientific specimens and wonders, including Jeffrey, the Lizard Man. When an old friend shows up and begs for her help, but is then found dead in front of the exhibit of the Feejee Mermaid, suspicion for the murder falls on Jeffrey, and Evie becomes determined to solve the mystery of her friend's murder.