Book: The Hanged Man's Song by John Sandford

Yup…another Sandford. This is features Kidd, most of the time a successful artist, not bound by the constraints of law enforcement officers.

Kidd and LuEllen (a lovely lady who, on occasion gets her kicks from relieving wealthy folks of some of their booty, aka stealing) are working in the south, undercover on a riverboat casino near Biloxi, to see if and how much the owner is skimming.

But then Bobby dies….Bobby who is a master hacker which is another of Kidd's deals…hacking.

And off they go, searching for Bobby's killer.  They find a young female teenage hacker living alone; they travel in and out of little places along the Mississippi River, aided by Kidd's black friends Marvel and John; they make a trip to Washington, DC….

Marvel to John: "You're getting old and conservative. Your hair is gonna turn white and woolly and you'll go on one of those religious shows and start talking about Jesus."

"LuEllen had been seeing a Mexican guy, a modern dance teacher, at the university in Duluth. She was drawn to the dark-eyed tribe…but she said she considered the attachment to be purely temporary She might consider all attachments purely temporary, even me; she was a lot like a cat."

Sandford gives women their due, and more…..

So much of his books are dialogue and he always gets it just right, along with his descriptions of person and place.

After the casino and hacker murder case, Kidd works on a commission…."oil sketches for most of September, trying to get it all just right. I was dreaming about them every night; I wanted them to glow from the walls, to hold the colors of the river, and to stand up to house."