The Hanged Man's Song

By: John Sandford

Narrated by: Richard Ferrone

Prey fans everywhere have embraced the return of Sandford's other charismatic hero, Kidd, artist, computer whiz, and professional criminal, and his sometime partner, sometime lover, LuEllen.

In The Hanged Man's Song, a superhacker friend of Kidd's named Bobby suddenly disappears from cyberspace, and Kidd knows that isn't a good sign. Then, when he goes to Bobby's house, Kidd finds him dead on the floor, his head bashed in and his laptop missing, and Kidd knows that really isn't a good sign. The secrets on that laptop are potent enough to hang Kidd and everybody else in Bobby's circle, just to start with, so there's no question that Kidd and LuEllen have to try to track it down, not to mention that Kidd would dearly love to get his hands on the man who killed Bobby. But before Kidd can get very far, the secrets start coming out anyway...and they're more staggering than even he had imagined. Because it's not just about the lives of a circle of friends and colleagues now, oh no, it's about something much, much bigger. And much, much scarier.

Filled with the atmosphere, characters, and exceptional drama that have made John Sandford one of America's best-loved thriller writers, The Hanged Man's Song is a masterpiece of suspense.

©2003 John Sandford (P)2003 Putnam Berkley Audio, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., and Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

"This latest intelligent and exciting thriller proves a worthy addition to Sandford's overall body of work." (Publishers Weekly)
"Richard Ferrone's gruff voice fits the novel's tone. His intense style keeps the story moving and gives the characters vitality." (AudioFile)
"Ultimately, thrillers are defined by the scariness of the villains, and the bad guys Kidd contends with are a special breed indeed, capable of rendering lives meaningless by the thousands with a few key strokes. Clear a spot on the best-seller lists for this timely and entertaining thriller." (Booklist)

It's Sandford.... but it's not.

John Sandford; Lucas Davenport & Richard Ferrone… or John Sandford; Virgil Flowers & Eric Conger, you can’t go wrong. Even the Lettie Davenport series shows some potential. But this character…. Not so much. For one thing, It’s too technical for my tastes. It tells me more about computers than I really need or want to know. It’s hard to get excited about characters who are basically criminals themselves. There’s nothing to hang your emotional hat on. I found myself not caring about the characters or what happened to them. There’s no seat of the pants action that’s part and parcel of a Sanford offering. The pace is slow and, although the book was only 8 hours long, it felt like twice that. It’s not bad, and I’m sure some tekkies will love the computer geek stuff, just not my cup of tea. Oh I listened to it, because I had run through all my other Sandford books, and if I started another Flowers novel I would start mouthing the words along with Conger. It filled gaps in my driving and took away the tediousness of the drive, but beyond that? I’ve got over 400 audio books in my library and I have second, third and even forth time gone through many of them. This one will find its place on the one-time-only shelf in the corner with the ten or twenty others that get listened to once and never see the light of day again.

Sandford Delivers Again

As good as any of John Sandford’s novels!
Narrator is also exceptional.
Highly recommend to anyone looking for interesting plot twists and characters.

Worth the read!

I love the narrator for John Sanford's books. When you are listening to a book on tape the narrator can make or break a story. Just like in a good movie actors can make or break the characters. I am a big fan of the prey serious but I didn't get into this book as much but It was still a very good book.

Hackerman to the rescue!

Very well written, just as good as his Lucas Davenport novels. A fast paced thrill ride, keeps you thinking all the way through. Great ending. Listen & Enjoy!

Awesome

Once again John weaves a masterful tale of adventure and intrigue! As an expert in Cyber Security his research was spot on! As a Certified Ethical Hacker it's nice to see that John listened to his researchers and was able to interlace the hard facts of truth with a healthy dose of fiction! I highly recommend this to both the Hacker and the lover of fiction! Well done John!

The characters seemed real.

I liked how the story moved along and how the author put it together. DS

Entertaining...but at times slow...

Overall I enjoyed this book, but at times it did get a little slow. As someone who works in the software field, there were a number of annoying technical problems with the plot, but I was able to put them aside. I always buy the un-abridged versions of books, but in this case, it might be better abridged.

totally disagree with the above review

I have read many, many mystery/suspense novels and find that John Sandford describes scenes in two very straight forward and descriptive sentences whereas other writers take two paragraphs to a page. There is very little superfluous writing in his books. He doesn't go on and on with descriptions of characters, but weaves the essence of them throughout the story. I have not read this book, so I can not vouch for it; however, I have read most of his other books (most of the Prey series and the first in the Kidd series). You can see how his writing tightens as he writes more. Most of the critic reviews describe his writing as "taut" or "fast" or "races" or "terrific pacing", so I am obviously not alone in my opinion. I think John Sandford is well worth reading. That is why his books sell so well. Cya! (p.s. I couldn't post this review without putting a rating on this book. My rating is for his work overall :)

Fun Techno-thriller

This books shows the power of the narrator in selling Audible books. It has been some time since I stumbled across a reading by Ferone and that alone was almost enough to get me to buy this one - that an the 48 hour special. I was not disappointed by either the writing or the reading. If you want a good little piece of escapist literature, go for it. I frankly cannot understand the first reviewers objection to John Sanford's writing, but then again I was only looking for a good listen over the holidays, and that is what I got.

Well worth your time.

My husband and I listened to this while we were driving on vacation and what a great story! I wish there were more audible in this series. The story is great! I love the Kidd and LuEllen series. The story is well written and the characters well developed. The narrator, Richard Ferrone, did a wonderful job of voicing the characters. More than worth your time.