Publisher's Weekly
Fans of Chesbro's novels ( Shadow of a Broken Man ) will relish these 10 stories, including the 1971 debut, in ''The Drop,'' of Roberto ''Mongo'' Frederickson, Ph.D. (criminology), private eye, ex-circus star and dwarf. All but one of the stories are from the hero-narrator's 1970s period of straightforward action/mystery although some (e.g., ''Rage,'' ''Book of Shadows'') presage Chesbro's later preoccupation with drugs and the occult. Chesbro's early penchant for dwarf-bashing gives way to increasing angst over Big Topics (''belief systems''), peaking in the pretension of ''Candala,'' the story Chesbro says unashamedly he's ''most proud of.'' Mystery stories first appeared in the Mike Shane and Alfred Hitchcock mystery magazines; the introduction, ''The Birth of a Series Character'' originally appeared in the Writer.