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"Dream of a Falling Eagle"

(Reviewed by Judi Clark JAN 10, 1999)

I'd forgotten all about MONGO MYSTERIES, until I came across this one at the Barnes & Noble clearance table!  Dr. Robert Frederickson, a.k.a. Mongo the Magnificent is "a dwarf, private detective, martial arts expert, ex-circus headliner and world renown criminologist."  He works cases with his brother Garth, a former NYPD lieutenant and now a private eye who is as good as a "human lie detector."  Mongo mysteries follow the classic private eye format of retelling events in the first person but this series blends science fiction, the supernatural, paranoia and a good vocabulary together (sort of like the TV series X-Files). 

In Dream of a Falling Eagle, Mongo and Garth have been working intensely on a case involving the CIA, Haiti and lots of bad voodoo and they have been hired by a Presidential commission to look into this alleged illegal activity. Meanwhile, Moby Dickens, a large, black, ex-convict, sanitation worker asks Mongo to find the person plagiarizing his poems and to tell him or her to stop. Mongo doesn't want to take the case, but Garth points out that someone is "stealing his soul" which is even more wrong than everything that the CIA has done. This second case, of course, ends up tying very nicely into the first case and although they don't really get the bad guys this time, they do end up with an interesting twist. 

As I put this entry together, I find that this and ALL of Chesbro books are no longer available! ***  In fact, Barnes & Noble lists this as a "hard to find" novel and I just picked this copy up at that store last week!  Well, I think I'll hold on to my collector's copy!  Meanwhile, I think X-Files Muldar and Skully should investigate why not a single Chesbro novel is available today - something smells conspiratorially fishy here.

• Amazon reader rating: from 1 review

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Bibliography: (with links to Amazon.com)

• Shadow of a Broken Man (1977)
• City of Whispering Stone (1978)
• An Affair of Sorcerers (1979)
• The Beasts of Valhalla (1985)
• Two Songs this Archangel Sings (1987)
• The Cold Smell of Sacred Stone (1988)
• Second Horseman Out of Eden (1989)
• The Language of Cannibals (1990)
• In the House of the Secret Enemies (1990)
• The Fear in Yesterday's Rings (1991)
• Dark Chant in a Crimson Key (1992)
• An Incident at Bloodtime (1993)
• Bleeding in the Eye of a Brainstorm (1995)
• Dream of a Falling Eagle (1996)

Other Novels:

• King's Gambit (1976)
• Turn Loose the Dragons (1982)
• Veil (1986)
• The Golden Child (1986)
• Jungle of Steel and Stone (1988)
• Bone (1989)
• Crying Freeman (1999 - not released in U.S.)
• The Keeper (April 2001)
• Prism: A Memoir as Fiction (January 2002)
• Prism: A Memoir as Fiction (January 2002)
• Lone Wolves: Short Fiction (June 2003)
• Strange Prey and Other Tales of the Hunt (September 2004)

• Originally written as David Cross:

• Chant (1986)
• Chant: Silent Killer (1987)
• Chant: Code of Blood (1987)

 

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Book Marks:

• The official George Chesbro Web site
• Mongo Books and Short Stories
• Read a review of Chesbro's The Keeper at MostlyFiction.com

 

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About the Author:

George C. Chesbro has been writing since he was about 20 while in college studying for a degree in special education. His first teaching job was to work with developmentally disabled-educable mentally retarded. Although hard work, there was no after hours work thus leaving him free to write for a couple hours each. He continued to teach for over 17 years before turning to writing full time. George and his wife Robin are the owners of Apache Press which is republishing his books using print-on-demand technology.

George and Robin Chesbro live in Nyack, New York.