The Fear in Yesterday's Rings — George C. Chesbro

A rash of hideous killings throughout the Great Plains seizes the imagination of the more lurid tabloid newspapers, which bray WEREWOLF! Hunters and gun buffs have been torn to shreds and partially devoured.

Mongo enters the scene on a mission of mercy for old friend Phil Statler, former owner of the Statler Brothers Circus. Many years ago, Phil spirited young dwarf Robert Frederickson away from a painful childhood in Nebraska and made him famous as the star acrobat 'Mongo the Magnificent.' Mongo, now in league with Harper Rhys-Whitney, a snake charmer of seductive beauty and diminutive stature, backed financially by an entire Florida town of wealthy ex-circus freaks, hopes to buy back the circus from its mysterious new owners and restore Statler as its head.

But the trail of the circus and the trail of the 'werewolf' cross. Surely it's not a coincidence that corpses, not just handbills and popcorn boxes, are left in the wake of this traveling show. Once the star, Mongo finds himself back in the center ring...in the Deadliest Show on Earth.