Dream of a Falling Eagle: A Mongo Mystery

When did that shrill, self-righteous note creep into the Mongo series, which started off with such a bang? Now, with the 14th entry (after Bleeding in the Eye of a Brainstorm, 1995), Chesbro's once-fascinating mix of action, mysticism and liberal politics seems to have veered into self-parody. It always took a leap of faith to accept a hero like Dr. Robert ""Mongo"" Frederickson--a dwarf whose formidable intellect and physical skills carried him through some fantastic adventures. But Chesbro worked hard to keep Mongo as believable as possible as he and his full-size brother, Garth, wandered across an often magical landscape in search of some truly outlandish villains. This time out, the bad guys are the CIA: not just a few rogues but apparently the entire outfit. The Company is afraid that the brothers Frederickson's investigation into some tangled Haitian political murders will derail its plot to assassinate the liberal U.S. president and veep and install the right-wing Speaker of the House in the Oval Office. Said Speaker is described as having risen to power on ""a poisonous, rushing tsunami of homophobia, antifeminism, and an entire devil's thesaurus of hysterical code words."" Even this familiar premise might have been swallowable if Chesbro didn't stop every few pages to decry everything from the Aldrich Ames case to assault weapons. Readers who agree politically with Mongo will find the hysteria and vivisection tough going here; others will probably give up early. (Oct.)