George C. Chesbro - Mongo - 07 - Second Horseman Out of Eden.epub

Christmas time usually finds Mongo, George C. Chesbro's intrepid dwarf detective, in a jolly mood. It is the custom of Mongo and his brother, Garth, to celebrate the season by fulfilling the fantasies of needy children. Yet there is no joy in this year's task, for the Frederickson brothers must race against the clock if they are to bestow the precious gift of freedom on a little girl who is lost in a sinister "secret place."

Their only clues are traces of exotic soil found in the creases of a letter to Santa, and a cryptic reference that suggests the child's tormentor may be a man with whom the detectives are all too familiar---a renegade televangelist who is a murderous zealot as well as a fugitive from justice. Their worst fears are realized when they discover that not only the safety of one innocent child but world peace my hang in the balance.

A desperate search leads the brothers first through New York City---from the Botanical Gardens to the opulent Manhattan suite of one of the world's richest and most powerful men---then into an eerie futuristic world within a world. Here ,Mongo must face the ultimate challenge. He must defeat the villainous giant who has dogged his every footstep---while seeking to avert the global holocaust that may be just a heartbeat away.

Time magazine has praised George Chesbro's Mongo as one of the "successful challengers to the bruiser class" of hard-boiled detective heroes. In Second Horseman Out of Eden, Mongo proves himself no longer a mere challenger but now a champion in the most ambitious Mongo novel to date.

---From the dustjacket of the Atheneum edition