The Panther Chronicles
Part 1 – The Black Stone
By Michael Kircher
Contributed to Make a Scene Magazine by Teresa Ascone
June 30, 2010

Michael Kircher tells his complex tale of a Middle East conspiracy/artifact heist, The Panther Chronicles, Part 1, The Black Stone in a narrative style that employs journals of the main characters smoothly interwoven with present-time adventures to move the action along and flashbacks to fill in the back story.  Kircher weaves in actual incidents, such as the 1970 shootings at Kent State University, to give the reader a sense of portent and realism.
The story opens with a harrowing account of photojournalist Kirk Michaels, imprisoned in a filthy, dark dungeon because he took photos of an old woman being stoned to death in an Iranian courtyard. Miraculously, his release is arranged - but his companion, Susan, is not so lucky. To his horror, he sees her broken body and learns that she has been murdered for possessing the photos.
 The tale goes on to bring the other members of the plot: Kirk’s old friend. Randall Thomas, the beautiful Nayana, Lucy Graham and Amid al Rahid into the mix and to relate their adventures as they try to unravel the mystery of the Panther legend, which somehow involves a piece of petrified wood engraved in Sanskrit, discovered by Randall in an East Indian shop in London. He investigates this intriguing artifact and discovers that the writing on the wood is older than the wood itself, a weird conundrum.
Mysticism and science are blended as the group comes together and hatches their plan, which is neatly and humorously summed up by Kirk and Randall as they relax in a pub over a few brews.
“ ‘Well, I’m attempting to locate a cache of epigraphically enhanced hidden artifacts with which we will be able to reinterpret all of human history. How about yourself?’
‘I’m planning to rob Islam of its holiest relic in front of four million witnesses.’
‘Right. Cheers to both of us.’ Randall said as we hoisted another beer.”
This fast-moving story, told with the aplomb of an Indiana Jones adventure, promises to hold the reader’s interest with car chases, intrigue and romance liberally laced with the flavor of Middle Eastern mysticism and ancient culture.