Server Down: A Mad Dog & Englishman Mystery

J. M. Hayes, Author . Poisoned Pen $24.95 (188p) ISBN 978-1-59058-627-3

Hayes's quirky fifth Mad Dog and Englishman mystery (after 2007's Broken Heartland ) alternates between Sheriff English's rural Benteen County, Kans., threatened by an incipient ethanol plant, and half-Cheyenne shaman Mad Dog's madcap tour of the grungier neighborhoods of Tucson, Ariz. At a Yaqui Easter rite, Mad Dog finds himself framed for a policeman's murder, then chased by both the police and a cerebral contract killer. English's plucky daughter, Heather, and Mad Dog's wolf-hybrid companion, Hailey, try to save him from both parties. Meanwhile, the sheriff investigates the bombing of Mad Dog's Kansas home. The crimes, connected by the hypnotic War of Worldcraft computer game, ensure headlong pace and wrenching plot twists, but the book's real strength is the way it depicts computer gaming's destruction of the player's ability to distinguish between reality and fantasy, with such actual consequences as election fixing and police corruption. (May)

Reviewed on: 02/09/2009

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Paperback - 400 pages - 978-1-59058-628-0

MP3 CD - 978-1-4332-8995-8

Compact Disc - 978-1-4332-8992-7

Analog Audio Cassette - 978-1-4332-8991-0

Paperback - 374 pages - 978-1-4587-3910-0

Open Ebook - 978-1-4587-1441-1