City of Whispering Stone

Rating:
Summary: Archeology and Politics Do Not Mix
Review: In my pre-Amazon years I encountered several mystery stories by George Chesbro. I enjoyed both. They had occult and eerie overtones in addition to the underlying mystery story. The 'detective' in these books is Mongo Frederickson a dwarf ex-circus star who went on to become an academic criminologist and adventurer/detective. For some reason I never ran into another Chesbro mystery. Recently, I discovered that Chesbro had written many Mongo stories. I decided it was time to do a little catching up.

"City of Whispering Stone" is thus my first Chesbro in some 20 years. I say 'new' guardedly, since it was originally written in 1978. It features Professor Robert Fredrickson (more commonly known as Mongo the Magnificent) as detective. Mongo is called in by an old circus friend to investigate the disappearance of Hassan Khordad, an Iranian circus star. The few leads point to a political tie-in with the old Iranian regime (the revolution is still to come). Back at the University where he teaches, Mongo follows this lead to the Confederation of Iranian Students and finds himself embroiled in the political turmoil of pre-revolutionary Iran.

Mongo becomes the target of the Iranian secret police, the CIA, arms smugglers, and even the Iranian liberation front (GEM). Seeking answers, he only manages to dig deeper into a political maze he barely understands. Suddenly, during the investigation, the Iranian girlfriend of Mongo's brother is killed. Garth, the brother, flies into Iran to attend her funeral, and promptly disappears. Mongo suddenly finds himself in Tehran trying to track down Garth. The remainder of the story is both a fascinating tour of pre-revolutionary Iran and an adventure story that would do Indiana Jones credit.

"City of Whispering Stone" is tightly plotted with a lot of surprising turns. The flashes of insight into Iranian politics are eye opening, for we Americans are accustomed to having the Shah portrayed as a hero and the revolutionaries as villains. Dialog is often humorous and tongue-in-cheek. I have to admit that Mongo's athletic prowess with shoe knives as a bit hard to swallow, but it just makes the story more exciting. All in all this is great reading. Keep an eye out for Chesbro's books.