What better way to spend a chilly Halloween night than curled up with a good, spooky book? Like Cosimo’s new collection, Loren Coleman Presents, beautiful new editions of cryptozoology classics with brand-new introductions by Coleman, one of the most respected names in the field.

The latest book in the series is The Book of Werewolves, the 1865 work by Sabine Baring-Gould. One of the many chilling episodes he details are a 1521 case heard by a French Inquisitor-General of two men — Pierre Bourgot and Michel Verdung– were accused of witchcraft and cannibalism. Among the horrific crimes allegedly committed by them:

On another occasion they fell upon a little girl of four years old, and ate her up, with the exception of one arm. Michel thought the flesh most delicious.

Another girl was strangled by them, and her blood lapped up. Of a third they ate merely a portion of the stomach. One evening at dusk, Pierre leaped over a garden wall, and came upon a little maiden of nine years old, engaged upon the weeding of the garden beds. She fell on her knees and entreated Pierre to spare her; but he snapped the neck, and left her a corpse, lying among her flowers. On this occasion he does not seem to have been in his wolf’s shape. He fell upon a goat which he found in the field of Pierre Lerugen, and bit it in the throat, but he killed it with a knife.

Michel was transformed in his clothes into a wolf, but Pierre was obliged to strip, and the metamorphosis could not take place with him unless he were stark naked.

He was unable to account for the manner in which the hair vanished when he recovered his natural condition.

Other recent books in the series include Abominable Snowmen: Legend Come to Life, the hard-to-find 1961 work by Ivan T. Sanderson; The Great Sea Serpent, the classic 1892 survey by A. C. Oudemans; and The Romance of Natural History, the 1860 bestseller by Philip Henry Gosse.

Armchair monster hunters will also enjoy Thunderbirds: America’s Living Legends of Giant Birds, the 2004 book by Mark A. Hall, with an introduction by Coleman, a publication of Cosimo partner Paraview.

Coleman’s own books as author delve into the world of bizarre creatures: Mothman and Other Curious Encounters, also from Paraview; Mysterious America: The Ultimate Guide to the Nation’s Weirdest Wonders, Strangest Spots, and Creepiest Creatures, available in a new edition from Paraview Pocket Books; and Bigfoot!: The True Story of Apes in America, also from Paraview Pocket Books.

These and other Cosimo books are always available at Amazon.com and other online booksellers.