The author (Sabine Baring-Gould, a parson of the Church of England, an archaeologist, a historian, and a prolific author best known for writing the hymn Onward Christian Soldiers ) takes a typically nineteenth century approach to the mythology, methodical, rational, and almost mechanistic. He details the legend in many permutations as it exists in a diversity of cultures and includes sensational chapters with case studies of cannibals, grave desecrators, and blood fetishists, which have a connection to lycanthropy. Also included is an extended treatment of the case of Giles de Rais, the notorious confederate of Joan of Arc who was convicted and executed for necrosadistic crimes.