The Hanged Man's Song

John Sandford

8/12/2007

Kidd is an artist living in Minneapolis. He also is a computer hacker - one of the best. He is loosely connected with a community of the best hackers in as much as they ever trust each other. The premier hacker in their community is a black man named Bobby. They've known Bobby is sick. When Bobby dies, each member gets a small portion of a key and sends it to one trusted member. He then can reassemble the key to get Bobby's address to get the computer and files before someone in the government can.

Bobby didn't die from his degerative disease, though. He was murdered. The person who murdered him also took his computer. Bobby's and Kidd's friend John was the recipient of the key. Kidd and John go to Louisiana to retrieve the computer. It was gone, although they found hidded DVD disks with encrypted files. They know that Bobby's laptop had a whole more. Within days, CNN starts reporting government scandals that have been leaked through "Bobby". Now Kidd and John are trying to find the murderer before the person can bring down most of the public figures in the government.

A Hanged Man's Song is another novel that shows how devestating a computer hacker can be if intent on destruction. Most civilized people's lives can be reconstructed through their computer records on charge cards, in banks, in schools, in IRS records, and through electric bills to name a few. Bobby had hacked into a CIA database that contained some very interesting and incriminating records. John Sandford reminds the reader that Big Brother could be watching.

A Hanged Man's Song is a fast paced chilling novel of what could happen. Kidd is a likeable, sympathetic character even if he is a crook. He is a respectable artist, but he doesn't want to be a starving one. So he's also a computer hacker. Enjoy John Sandford's book and remember its implications.

You can find more about this book at .

The Fool's Run
The Empress File
The Devil's Code
The Hanged Man's Song