Irish-born author Fitz-James O'Brien is a underrated genius of weird fiction, serving as the missing link between Edgar Allan Poe and later purveyors of the form like Algernon Blackwood, Ambrose Bierce and Arthur Machen. This collection contains several of O'Brien's most well-known weird tales including "The Diamond Lens" (a seance, a murder and a world beneath a microscope!) and "What Was It?" (an invisible murderous creature that predates Wells' The Invisible Man and Ambrose Bierce's "The Damned Thing"), both stories taking a scientific approach to the fantastical and supernatural. Also included are stories like the bizarre killer puppets of "The Wondersmith", the spacial legerdemain of "The Lost Room", a mystery from beyond the grave with "A Pot of Tulips", an exotic and fantastical tale of the Orient with "The Dragon Fang" and several others that illustrate the sheer talent and imagination of a near forgotten master of the weird. (Summary by Ben Tucker)