Dark Chant in a Crimson Key

A circus-performer-turned-PI matches wits with an international assassin in another of Chesbro’s “wild roller-coaster rides” (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine).

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.

Hired to investigate an audacious theft, Mongo travels to Zurich, Switzerland, where rich philanthropist Emmet P. Neuberger claims terrorist and criminal John “Chant” Sinclair has swindled his charitable organization, the Cornucopia Foundation, out of $10 million. Several agencies, including Interpol, are already on the case, but Neuberger wants a private eye to monitor the situation.

It quickly becomes clear it’s much more than a simple case of embezzlement. As the bodies pile up and suspicions turn to Mongo himself, the detective decides to hunt down Chant on his own. But the deeper he digs into this peculiar case, the more he begins to think that Chant may not be the one to blame . . .

This thrilling entry in the Mongo series introduces international assassin Chant, who goes on to star in his own series of adventures from the author who “writes wonderfully strange mystery novels . . . [with] perfectly calculated nail-biting tension” (Boston Sunday Herald).

Dark Chant in a Crimson Key is the 11th book in the Mongo Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.