[1] The book contains twenty-three short works of fiction and a section of notes on the stories by the author, together with an introduction by Paul Di Filippo.

Michael Dirda in The Washington Post, calling the author "[o]ne of fantastika’s most energetic and versatile talents," and the set of anthologies "two princely volumes," notes that in them the Schweitzer "has finally received the kind of sumptuous career retrospective that most writers can only dream about."

From this volume he singles out "The Adventure of the Hanoverian Vampires," in which "Sherlock Holmes battles the Undead, assisted by a small cat," for particular comment, observing, "[a]s the well-read Schweitzer unobtrusively acknowledges," that the alternate 19th-century Britain in which it is set was "borrowed ... from Joan Aiken's rumbustious Dido Twite novels.

Of the He calls author "an acknowledged master of the short-story form" with "one of the world's greatest imaginations," and "a quick sense of humor" one "might never guess from reading his darkest works."

Fultz also expresses appreciation for the cover art, calling it a "[g]reat example of Van Hollander’s phantasmagorical style,[and] a perfect match for Darrell’s weird prose.