Comments from George C. ChesbroAs with many of my novels, the notion for Bone was borne of a sense of outrage---this time over the sorry state of affairs in a country as wealthy as the United States where so many impoverished, mentally ill people are forced to live on the streets. I had my setting; being a mystery writer, I naturally had to have a mystery, as well as a corpse or two. I did more research on this novel, on amnesia as well as the milieu of the homeless in New York City, than for any other. The opening scene came to me almost at once, but the rest came very gradually; I was halfway through the first draft before I even discovered where Bone came from, and what he did. SynopsisBone is a member of New York City's legions of the homeless. The past year of his life has been spent wandering the streets of Manhattan, mute, without memory, a street person among thousands of others---but one with a particular gleam of purpose in his eyes. Bone seemed to stand out from the drifting crowd, and one reason was certainly the ancient and rock-hard human femur he had carried with him everywhere.But after a year, another trauma reactivates the first---restoring Bone's voice but again wiping clear his memory. Bone is now not only bereft of his true life, but has no idea of the purpose of his wanderings during the past year. His problems are multiplied by NYPD Lieutenant Perry Lightning, convinced that Bone is the man responsible for the hideous series of beheading murders among the city's homeless population, which began shortly after Bone was first seen on the New York Streets.With the help of Anne, a lovely and concerned social worker, and Zulu, a seven-foot-tall street performer, Bone gradually puts back the pieces of his lost world---and confronts his connection with the string of vicious killings.A kaleidoscope of fascinating characters---including street cops, street thugs, and street people---populate George C. Chesbro's masterful new thriller of alienation and horror.---From the dustjacket of the Mysterious Press edition.

SUMMARY:Part sci-fi thriller and part fantasy, this roller-coaster of a story introduces Mongo, one of the greatest new characters of recent mystery fiction.

A detective takes on mad scientists when a D&D fantasy world turns deadly in this " thrilling combination" of "not-quite-science-fiction and suspense" (Playboy). With a genius IQ, a past career as a circus acrobat, and a black belt in karate, criminology professor Dr. Robert Frederickson—better known as "Mongo the Magnificent"—has a decidedly unusual background for a private investigator. He also just so happens to be a dwarf. When Mongo's sister asks him to investigate the death of his nephew, Tommy—the victim of an apparent murder-suicide—the private detective soon learns that everything's tied to the computer game Tommy and his friends created: an elaborate quest based on J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. The clues send Mongo on a cross-country journey, from a painful visit to his former hometown in Nebraska and back to New York, then on to the rugged coastline of California's Big Sur and,...

When a circus-performer-turned-PI is drawn into the occult underworld, the result is "beautifully plotted and assured" (#1 New York Times–bestselling author Peter Straub). With a genius IQ, a past career as a circus acrobat, and a black belt in karate, criminology professor Dr. Robert Frederickson—better known as "Mongo the Magnificent"—has a decidedly unusual background for a private investigator. He also just so happens to be a dwarf. Mongo needs all his faculties when he's hired to investigate a fellow professor who's been experimenting with sensory deprivation. Soon after, a nun asks him to help clear a psychic of murder. And then, weirdest of all, his seven-year-old neighbor, Kathy, begs him to locate her father's "Book of Shadows." When Mongo finds Kathy's father dead from what seems to be a ritual sacrifice—and the little girl lying comatose nearby—the distressed detective follows a trail...

When Veil Kendry was born, a brain infection almost ended his life. Surviving that illness has left him with a power that is both a blessing and a curse.Veil dreams with a clarity unknown to normal people; his dreams bring him to the edges of time and infinity---and to the minds of other men.Veil left his career in the CIA to become a painter, an artist whose landscapes are of another place...usually unseen, totally unknown. He has volunteered to undergo tests at the Institute for Human Studies, and now someone there is trying to kill him.Veil's background has left him with enemies, both inside the Agency and out. He doesn't know where the threat is coming from. He does know that the U.S. Army shares land with the Institute, and that some of the investigations going on there have nothing to do with psychic research but with something perhaps more important---those persons known as the Lazarus People.The Lazarus People are those who were clinically dead, but who have returned to life with stories of another place---the place of Veil's painted landscapes. The place where Veil's final battle will be fought.---From the dustjacket of the Mysterious Press edition

From the author of the Mongo Mysteries: The suspicious death of a friend leads the world's most wanted criminal down a dark and dangerous path. There are very few people international assassin John "Chant" Sinclair trusts, and even fewer who know his secrets. When his friend, Roman magistrate Vito Biaggi, is violently killed, Chant knows that what Italian authorities are calling a random assault is anything but. With Chant's help, Biaggi had been investigating an international cabal of businessmen who were funding terrorists. Only three weeks prior, he'd revealed the conspiracy's existence and was on the brink of exposing its powerful players. But now Biaggi is dead, and Chant is determined to hunt down the ones responsible. His search exposes a shocking trail of corruption and death, ultimately leading Chant into a secretive world ruled by a madman, where he must face the only adversary he's ever failed to defeat. Code...

From Publishers WeeklyMongo's back in his 12th novel (after An Incident at Bloodtide). The martial arts expert, PI and former circus star who happens to be a dwarf relies a bit less on gymnastics and coincidence this time, and more on his human nature. On a cold night in Manhattan, against his better judgment, Mongo takes in homeless Mama Spit, who has suddenly become clearheaded and is anxious to abandon her former residence?a heating grate?and to pick up her former life as Margaret Dutton. Her cure was effected by some pills a young man pressed into her hands just before he was killed. As a side effect, Margaret's senses of smell and taste have been enhanced. Mongo discovers similarly enhanced senses in Michael Stout whom he encounters at a local chess club. From Stout, Mongo learns that a dozen patients at a mental hospital run by the Chill Shop, a covert CIA group, have escaped. All had been taking this unknown drug, a mixture "of heavy duty psychotropics," likely to cause death if abruptly withheld. To cover up the program and the escape, two assassins aim to to eliminate the escaped patients and then Mongo, whose dogged pursuit of the villains creates a diverting mystery. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. FromThe twelfth novel (plus one novella) featuring Mongo the Magnificent, aka Robert Frederickson, the famed criminologist/martial arts expert/former circus aerialist and dwarf is true to the formula employed in the others: Mongo discovers a monstrous plot perpetrated on the helpless by immoral minions of a powerful organization, is tortured by those minions, and then wreaks an almost Old Testament revenge while saving the victims. Along the way, the author endlessly moralizes and violates the writer's dictum, "Don't tell the readers, show them." In this one, the CIA and a Swiss pharmaceutical company are experimenting illegally on schizophrenics. The drug they've developed actually works, but it's the side effects that intrigue the bad guys. Even worse, missing a single day's dose is fatal, and Mongo must shatter the Company and the company while ensuring an ongoing supply of an unknown drug. Needless to say, he fills the prescription. Hokey? You bet. But fans will want their Mongo prescriptions filled, so libraries better stock up. Thomas Gaughan

A circus-performer-turned-PI and his ex-cop brother rescue a girl from a doomsday cult in this novel of "terrific suspense" and "unlimited imagination" (Publishers Weekly). With a genius IQ, a past career as a circus acrobat, and a black belt in karate, criminology professor Dr. Robert Frederickson—better known as "Mongo the Magnificent"—has a decidedly unusual background for a private investigator. He also just so happens to be a dwarf. Mongo and his brother, Garth, have left their day jobs as a professor and a cop, respectively, and formed their own PI firm, Frederickson & Frederickson. It's a great reason to celebrate this holiday season, but when their annual tradition of picking up a few letters to Santa from the post office to fulfill the Christmas wishes of needy children reveals a sinister secret, their cheer is replaced with a yearning for justice. As the brothers race to save a little girl from a religious...

When Veil Kendry was born, a brain infection almost ended his life. Surviving that illness has left him with a power that is both a blessing and a curse. Veil dreams with a clarity unknown to normal people; his dreams bring him to the edges of time and infinity---and to the minds of other men. Veil left his career in the CIA to become a painter, an artist whose landscapes are of another place...usually unseen, totally unknown. He has volunteered to undergo tests at the Institute for Human Studies, and now someone there is trying to kill him. Veil's background has left him with enemies, both inside the Agency and out. He doesn't know where the threat is coming from. He does know that the U.S. Army shares land with the Institute, and that some of the investigations going on there have nothing to do with psychic research but with something perhaps more important---those persons known as the Lazarus People. The Lazarus People are those who were clinically dead, but who have returned to life with stories of another place---the place of Veil's painted landscapes. The place where Veil's final battle will be fought.