"The Hanged Man's Song"

John Sandford's "The Hanged Man's Song" is another Kidd novel featuring Kidd, an artist and computer whiz well as a professional criminal.  He's joined in this novel by his sometime partner, sometime lover, LuEllen, who is a thief -- and a very good one because she's never been caught.  By the way, LuEllen isn't even her real name and she won't divulge her true identity even to Kidd.

Part of Kidd's professional criminal activities have been aided by a professional superhacker -- buried so deep that no one knows who his real identity is or where he's located.  He's known only as Bobby.  When Bobby disappears from cyberspace, Kidd and his friend, John, know something isn't right so they set out to locate him.  When they do find him, he's been murdered and his computer and more have been stolen from his house.  This is bad news not only for Kidd and John but a lot of other people out there.  Whoever has the computer not only killed Bobby but is in a position to cause trouble for many.

Before Kidd and John (with a little help from LuEllen who insists on tagging along) get very far into their investigation secrets start coming out on  the national news.  These secrets could harm a lot of politicians as well as the government.  John and Kidd must get the computer back before some of their secrets come out.

Per Sandford's usual fast-paced style, this book is hard to put down once the chase is on and the chase starts almost at the beginning!  pazt