An addition to the Uncle George series from heedlessly prolific Pentecost--with the ex-lawyer recluse (The Copycat Killers) now deputized, by friend/sheriff Red Egan, to help find the killer of carnival follower Stan Chard. Why was Chard, a one-time sword swallower, so wealthy? That's the first puzzle--while Chard's traveling companion, red-haired call girl Stormy Knight, is then kidnapped (under George's nose), to be found tortured and near death days later. Furthermore, someone then tries to blow up Uncle George with a bomb in his jeep. So: what's behind all this mayhem in the small, staid New England town of Lakeview? Well, George's deductions lead to some of the burg's most respected citizens, with a search for the blackmail-weapon that's turned them all into savages. And before the windup Uncle G. and his hero-worshiping nephew Joey will be saved from their own grisly fate by Chard's incorruptible four-footed survivor. Better-paced, less mechanical, and a little more involving than previous Uncle George episodes.