I have always loved water, and a dream had come true for me. I had moved to Nyack-on-the-Hudson and found myself living in a house, complete with beach, on the Hudson River. I had a tremendous desire to incorporate my new surroundings into a novel. Combining that desire with my lifelong detestation of people who twist words out of shape in order to tell bigger and better lies resulted in The Language of Cannibals.

Cairn is a pretty little town on the Hudson River a few miles north of New York City. Long a haunt of artists, writers, and intellectuals, Cairn has lately been discovered as prime real estate by such men as Elysius Culhane, the hard-line conservative media superstar.

With Culhane came his brain trust and assorted toadies---and shortly afterward, a crew of mysterious vigilantes dedicated to wiping out suspected drug dealers, sexual deviants, and communists through the use of violence and terror.

Dr. Robert Frederickson ("Mongo" to his friends) arrives in Cairn to ask a few questions about the recent "accidental" death of his friend, FBI man Michael Burana. He meets Police Chief Mosely---a man firmly in the pocket of Culhane---and Mary Tree, a 1960s folk singer who now runs Cairn's pacifist Community of Conciliation. The facts the provide to Mongo point to murder.

Now running a full-fledged investigation of his friend's death, Mongo stirs the vigilante death squad---or is it someone working independently?---into new and deadly action. The shadowy, murderous powers lurking within the town of Cairn bring the ultimate challenge to the redoubtable dwarf sleuth's personal philosophy and detective skills.

• I tried to make some small talk... -Mongo

• "You must have the wrong dwarf..." -Mongo

• "Anybody who expresses a desire to run for any office should automatically be disqualified." -Mongo

• "Power doesn't necessarily corrupt, but power always holds a fascination for people who are easily corrupted." -Mongo

• "I think it was Patrick Buchanan who wrote that the food you put in a man's mind is at least as important as the food you put in his stomach." -Elysius Culhane

• "...Sometimes I suspect that strong political ideology, like religious fervor, has a genetic as well as a cultural basis..." -Mongo

• "...Total social control has always been a wet dream of the far right..." -Mongo

• "...All governments dislike citizens who protest..." -Mary Tree

• "...the disease called war." -Mary Tree

• "...It's a hell of a lot better to die for what you believe in than to die- or kill- for something you don't believe in." -Mongo

• "This is a nation built on, and held together by, illusions." -Jack Trex

• "...governments don't lie; people do." -Mongo

• "...There are a lot of dogs in the world a hell of a lot meaner than the one that bit you." -Mongo

• "...Alices who misuse language end up eventually living in their own Wonderlands." -Mongo