Murder in the Mountains

The setting of Cibrario's mystery and adventure novel begins in a Chicago suburb during May, 2001. Carl Brecht, the anthropologist, is planning to return to Nepal with his 18-year-old daughter Kathy. He is finishing another semester of teaching at the University of Chicago. Carl intends to depart from O'Hare Field with Kathy the day after her high school graduation party. They will be attending a convention in Kathmandu involving Alternative Medicine, and the Paramedic Training of Shamans.

Carl has been married to Barbara for 24 years, but he's reluctant to leave her since she's feeling abandoned from the empty nest syndrome. Their older son Mark is studying for final exams in biochemistry. He plans to leave for a summer job in Colorado. Barbara is also worried about Carl and Kathy travelling, due to political unrest in Nepal, where the Maoists are taking over police stations in rural areas and approaching Kathmandu. There's more stress for the family when Barbara's controlling father, Sam, arrives a week prior to the party.

After the hectic graduation, Carl and Kathy depart for Kathmandu and arrive during the monsoon season. Upon checking into the Kathmandu Guest House they discover that Margaret Porter has hired shamans to perform exorcisms to liberate the souls of her son Christopher from demonic possession. He was murdered in the garden of the hotel 25 years ago.

Margaret has also come to Nepal to find her older son Nigel who was kidnapped by a London Coven when he was eight-years-old. He is now a Buddhist monk who was brought to Kathmandu from a distant monastery by Crown Prince Dipendra. The queen objects to Nigel living at the royal palace and Dipendra's love affair with Devyani, a wealthy woman from India. A tragedy occurs during a family dinner party at the palace on June 1st when Dipendra allegedly massacres the king and queen and other family members and guests, followed by a suicide attempt. But Nigel and three monks and a yogi are arrested and accused of conspiring with Maoist to overthrow the Shah Dynasty. Margaret, Carl, and Kathy are shocked to learn that Nigel is alleged to have taken part in the conspiracy.
Read a full review of this exciting new work here.

A new review by former Peace Corps Volunteer in Nepal, Don Messerschmidt of Murder in the Mountains as well as all three of the Kathmandu Trilogy novels The Pomelo Tree, The Harvest, The Shamans, along with the sequel appears here

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