Server Down-J.M. Hayes

Server Down
J.M. Hayes
Poisoned Pen, May 2009, $24.95
ISBN: 1590586271

Half-Cheyenne self-proclaimed shaman Mad Dog leaves Kansas to attend the Yaquis festival in Tucson, Arizona; his traveling companion is his best friend Hailey the wolf. Also in town for the gala is mad Dog’s niece Heather. However during an Easter ceremony, someone kills a Sews tribal police officer and sets up Mad Dog to take the fall.

On the run from the cops and a professional killer, Mad Dog calls his half brother, Benteen County, Kansas Sheriff English to tell him of his plight from the law. English informs him his home was destroyed by a grenade. While English works the Kansans explosion and Mad Dog keeps eluding the law and a killer, Heather and Hailey team up to prove his innocence while a new target surfaces in Vegas. As always, all hell has broken out in the west and this time in cyberspace where a game is not a game when it comes to War of Worldcraft.

The latest Mad Dog and Englishman thriller (see BROKEN HEARTLAND, PRAIRIE GOTHIC, and MAD DOG AND ENGLISHMAN) is a zany crime caper that contains super twists in three states and cyberspace. The story line is fast-paced and filled with action as reality and cyber-reality commingle. However it is the eccentric cast, some of whom feel like they come from Alan Arkin’s war parody King of Hearts, which makes the novel so much fun to read.

Harriet Klausner