The Xanthic Xena

Case Number 24

Nothing on the Internet is what it seems. The person, known on social media as @XanthicXena is not really a warrior princess, but is really 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 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.

This is the twenty-fourth of twenty-seven books in the Hot Dog Detective series. Follow Mark MacFarland’s adventures as he redefines who he is.