The Xanthic Xena

TROLLING FOR MURDER

Nothing on the Internet is what it seems. The elusive, unknown person who uses the handle @XanthicXena is not really a mystery warrior princess, but is secretly Jacob Gold, a graduate student at the University of Colorado. He, along with a group of other graduate students, creates social media havoc, just so they can covertly track information flow, social influences, and other variables of interest to their professor, Dr. Phillip Zovskii.

However, Dr. Zovskii's research studies come to an end when his star troller, @XanthicXena, is found dead in a car, the victim of an apparent suicide.

Jacob Gold's parents don't believe their son took his own life. They hire Mark MacFarland, part-time hot dog vendor and part-time detective, to investigate the real cause of their son's death.

MacFarland finds himself immersed in the complicated lives of a dozen graduate students, all of whom spend their days lying to people on the Internet…and probably to both the police and to MacFarland.

THE HOT DOG DETECTIVE SERIES has been described as "half way between Noir Mystery and Cozy Mystery." Enjoy each of these Denver, Colorado set mysteries as stand-alone Who-Dunits or as part of the ongoing series in which MacFarland finally gets the nerve to take his friendship with his ex-police partner, Cynthia Pierson, to the next level.