Server Down (Mad Dog & Englishman Mysteries) (Hardcover)

~ J M Hayes (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

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)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

Starred Review. Cheyenne would-be shaman Mad Dog arrives in Tucson, AZ, to attend the Yaqui tribe's Easter ceremonies but is accused of witchcraft and the stabbing death of a policeman. But Mad Dog knows who the real killer is, having spotted him in an online computer game. Meanwhile back in Kansas, Mad Dog's house is blown up and his brother, Sheriff English, investigates. Readers of this series (Broken Heartland; Prairie Gothic) know that when the English family is involved, nothing is what it appears to be and the outcome is never what anyone expects. Full of outrageous humor and a plot that will leave even the most jaded readers demanding more, Hayes's latest gives Janet Evanovich a run for the wackiest characters and most bizarre plots in crime fiction. [See Prepub Mystery, LJ 1/09.]
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 188 pages
• Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press; 1st edition (May 5, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590586271
• ISBN-13: 978-1590586273
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,158,042 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars zany crime caper, May 8, 2009

By	Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews (#1 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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

5.0 out of 5 stars Server Down is a winner, September 16, 2009

By	A Reader in Washington (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

Server Down
J. M. Hayes
Poisoned Pen Press, ISBN #978-1-59058-627-3

The fifth in J. M. Hayes' Mad Dog and Englishman series is a wild ride, enjoyable and thoroughly engrossing.

With the redoubtable Sheriff English still not fully recovered from the damage done to his spinal column toward the end of Broken Heartland, his daughter, Heather, goes to Arizona to attend both a legal seminar and the Yaqui Tribe Easter ceremonies. Unbeknownst to her, her Uncle Mad Dog, Sheriff English's shaman-in-training brother, has also driven out for the ceremonies, but practically as soon as he arrives, a policeman is murdered with a knife whose handle bears Mad Dog's name. Not that Mad Dog will have much to go back home to if he does beat the rap  after he left Kansas, someone blew up his house.

The plot of the story is ingenious and complex, but not confusing. To summarize it would involve revelation of multiple spoilers. Suffice to say, Mad Dog had been playing War of Worldcraft, a popular computer game, a takeoff on the real-life World of Warcraft, and it appears that someone is moving the game out of the virtual world into reality. Sheriff English, concerned for his daughter's safety, orders her to stay away from the case, and let the Arizona police do their work, but she believes (rightly) that if the cops get their hands on her uncle, he's going to end up dead. And as she pursues clues, she finds herself in conflict with a very nasty criminal who'd determined to do some very nasty things to her as payment for her interference.

Hayes possesses a rare talent for portraying engaging human beings, who, with all their foibles, hangups, and eccentricities, never cross the line into caricature. It's not easy to tell good guys from bad in this story, and as the plots unfold, trying to figure out whodunit and whodunwhat (and to whom) becomes an intriguing challenge.

The author's customary technique of jumping at critical moments from one character's point of view to another's carries the reader through the narrative at breakneck pace.

Woven into the fabric of the story and giving it greater depth are significant issues, including the fixing of elections, and the question whether addiction to computer games can impair a person's ability to distinguish between reality and fantasy.

Throughout Server Down, there's a sense of transition, with more of the action taking place in Arizona than in Kansas, and with Heather's emergence as a primary operative, while her father hobbles through Benteen County on his walker. I have to wonder whether the next book in the series will go further along this path. Whatever the answer, I think this is one series that will not stagnate.

4.0 out of 5 stars Live Computer Games, August 12, 2009

By	Ted Feit (Long Beach, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This is the fifth in the Mad Dog and Englishman Series, and the plot is more consistent with Dorothy's fantasy characters in the Land of Oz than in the small town Kansas jurisdiction of Sheriff English. It is replete with computer geeks and the evil avatars of a computer game, known as War of Worldcraft (WOW).

Mad Dog, English's half-Cherokee, half-brother, and would-be Shaman, drives to Tucson at the suggestion of his niece, Heather, to witness the Yaqui tribe's Easter Ceremonies. Almost immediately upon his arrival he is confronted by a Bad Guy who stabs a tribal policeman to death implicating Mad Dog by using a knife with his name etched on it. Mad Dog runs, with the police force after him, and his wolf, Hailey, and Heather trying to save him. Meanwhile, English, hampered by his spinal injury and back in Kansas, tries to unravel as much of the mystery as possible, especially when Mad Dog's home is blown up and his office explodes as well.

Lots of action keeps the story moving at a brisk pace, and the mix of personalities as well as a look at politics in the Arizona city set the stage for an interesting 24-hour period. A fast and enjoyable read, up to the series' standards, and recommended.