An Incident at Bloodtide
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
A circus-performer-turned-PI deals with sinister sleight of hand in a novel that “gleefully subvert[s] most of the rules of mystery fiction” (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, are experienced private detectives. So when Garth’s wife Mary’s strange ex-boyfriend shows up uninvited, they suspect he, the self-proclaimed magician Sacra Silver, is full of mumbo jumbo. But when a series of annoying pranks disrupts their lives, Mongo and Garth have to deal with Sacra’s attempts at black magic.
Meanwhile, they’re also investigating a death involving a suspicious multinational corporation. Garth’s friend, environmental cop Tom Blaine, was found in the Hudson chopped to pieces by a boat propeller—just like the kind on the tanker the victim had seen dumping oil in the river . . .
The two problems couldn’t be less alike, but soon Mongo learns the dirty dealings have a connection that could put everyone he loves in danger.
An Incident at Bloodtide is the 12th book in the Mongo Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Gleefully subverting most of the rules of mystery fiction, Chesbro ( Dark Chant in a Crimson Key ) once again produces an extraordinary adventure for his singularly implausible (albeit surpassingly entertaining) dwarf detective, former circus star turned criminologist/sleuth and media darling, Mongo Frederickson. Mongo is visiting his brother Garth and his famous folksinger wife, Mary, when Sacra, Mary's former lover, arrives to claim Mary as his own. Mary is plainly terrified and believes Sacra is a witch. Because Mongo's former loves also include a practitioner of the black arts, he takes Mary's fears seriously. Meanwhile, out on the Hudson River, not far from Garth's house, a shipping company is dumping oil into the water and loading mysterious cargo for export overseas. When an environmentalist friend tries to obtain evidence, his body is ripped apart by propeller blades. With only one real suspect, the author is forced to weld Garth's domestic woes to the wider environmental concerns of the Hudson River. This kind of minimalist plot gambit could easily misfire, but Mongo and his cohorts form such a ruthlessly cunning, delightfully oddball crew that the reader remains engrossed. The action heats up, bodies are battered and the plucky Mongo gets to pilot a tanker through murky waters.
