In the traditions of Poe and Lovecraft, these eight stories of horror and dark fantasy explore the title theme, each finding a protagonist on the verge of madness. The novella, "Victor Chaldean and the Portal" and the following story, "Murmurers" are both the first in a series of tales involving the same characters. These works also introduce the reader to "The Tales of the Fractured Realms," a dark fantasy cosmology from which Wilhite plans to offer us many stories, novellas and novels in the future. Another selection, "The Gangster's New Clothes," has recently been optioned for the podcast www.welltoldtales.com.