With western pop culture media concentrating on American-based strangeness it's easy to forget that really odd things happen in other countries. Luckily we have books like "Great Australian Mysteries" to remind us of the strangeness of Australia.

With our strange history (Mark Twain called Australian history a collection "of the most beautiful lies"), there is enough material to fill several books, which Pinkney has done (also check out his sequel "More Great Australian Mysteries"). This book includes many of the famous Australian mysteries which would be in any tome covering Australian mysteries, including Prime Minister Harold Holt's disappearance, the sad case of the Beaumont children's disappearance, the Taman Shud case and the Frederick Valentich case, which some have claimed is UFO-connected.

While there weren't any cases here that I wasn't already aware of, Pinkney filled in some gaps in my knowledge of them. Of course, I'm somewhat obsessive about Australian true life mysteries so my prior knowledge base was probably somewhat more than the average reader who picks this book up. And after putting it down, the average reader will think "Australia's even stranger than I thought."

Recommended. ( )