Server Down (Mad Dog & Englishman Mysteries)

J.M. Hayes
Poisoned Pen Press (2009)
ISBN 9781590586280
Reviewed by Carol Hoyer, PhD, for Reader Views (1/09)


Hayes has given readers a fascinating read in this fast-paced, twisted-plot book. His ability to explore his characters personalities and relay them to the reader makes one want to read more of his series.

Mad Dog, a Cheyenne want-to-be shaman, arrives in Tucson to attend the Yaqui tribe’s Easter Ceremonies with niece Heather. What he gets instead is hunted by the local police for killing a local policeman. Back in Kansas, his brother, a local sheriff, is investigating how Mad Dog’s house got blown up.

During the time that Mad Dog and his wolf-like dog, Hailey, are on the run from a state-wide search, his brother discovers that some young men have hacked into a popular online computer game: War of Worldcraft. What once was a fantasy game has now become a real and deadly game.

In “Server Down,” author J.M. Hayes has given readers a fast-paced, thrilling book with many subplots throughout. Even though he says in the beginning that characters and towns are fictitious, with today’s technology we certainly can understand how people get involved in fantasy games and can’t get back to reality. The detail in which he describes the manhunt, bombings and attempts on innocent people draws readers in.

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