Mystery Underground #3: California Creatures

A Collection of Scary Short Stories

By: David Anthony, Charles David Clasman

Narrated by: Neil Holmes

Mystery Underground is a collection of scary short stories for kids, middle-grade listeners, and everyone who likes a good scare. The stories combine the monsters and mystery of Goosebumps with the surprise endings of The Twilight Zone. They are the perfect scary stories to listen to in the dark, around the campfire, or under the covers at night with a flashlight.

This audiobook contains 13 scary short stories set around the state of California. Listeners will encounter werewolves, sharks, saber-toothed cats, and other mysterious creatures of legend.

1. "Tar Pit Terror" (Los Angeles)
2. "Where the Wildfires Are" (Coloma)
3. "No. 13 Pencil" (San Diego)
4. "Coyote Hollows" (Death Valley)
5. "The Man in the Gray Suit" (Malibu)
6. "The Boot" (South Lake Tahoe)
7. "The Red Mother" (Redwood National Park)
8. "Superstitious Sister" (Anaheim)
9. "What Makes the Earth Quake" (San Bernardino)
10. "Toll to the Troll" (San Francisco)
11. "Trick and Treat" (Redding)
12. "Movie Monsters" (Hollywood)
13. "The Rattle" (Beverly Hills)

©2013 Sigil Publishing, LLC (P)2018 Sigil Publishing, LLC

Didn’t listen long. Seemed childish.

Had to make this 15 words to post so blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

Great for kids on a road trip

Note: Even though this is Book #3 in the series, it works just fine as a stand alone.

This is another great collection of spooky tales for the whole family. I expected great things from this book since Frightening Florida was so wonderful and I was not disappointed. Some tales are based on local myths or legends while others have a more modern bend to them.

A few of the tales stood out for me. I loved the tale that have grandparents who claim to be monster hunters (The Boot). I didn’t know until the very end whether the grandparents were going to be heroes or villains. I also loved the opening tale (Tar Pit Terror) because who doesn’t love a scary story that features a skeleton and this skeleton comes out of a smelly, gooey pit. Toll to the Troll was also awesome. I will never look at Alcatraz the same way again.

This collection of tales has a good balance of humor and scary. For instance, The Man in the Gray Suit had me laughing over the corny surfer slang. Often the various characters, almost all of which are kids, tease each other adding a few chuckles to even the scariest stories.

California Creatures is great for all ages as any sad ending to the heroes is left off scene and merely implied in the ending. I liked that most tales left things open ended so I can imagine my favorite heroes escaping at the last second… or being eaten or such if I felt they needed a dramatic ending.

The collection is full of little surprises. A dragon!?! Some weird fountain of youth? A zoo for movie monsters? The authors’s imaginations are on full display with these tales. 5/5 stars.

I received a free copy of this book.

The Narration: Neil Holmes gave another great performance. I love his range of voices, from little girl to gruff grandma to questionable security guard to impatient troll – he has a different voice for them all. His female voices were feminine and his little kid voices were well done. I loved all his emotion too, especially for the scared surfers. I did notice a few small technical issues with the recording – a few times I think I heard paper rustling and once there was a line that partially overlayed another line. None of these small issues detracted from my enjoyment of the book. 4.5/5 stars.