Bob "Famous Anus" Kellogg is a San Diego area hasher and mystery writer. Amazingly enough, Murder on the Run combines hashing with a mystery, set in San Diego. Note to self: Write about what you know!

Even without the element of hashing, the mystery pulls you in. It's a compelling story, competently written. You know right away who done it . . . an attractive San Diego harriette kills a harrier on trail in the opening chapter . . . what you don't know is why she done it. And hashing adds a nice wrinkle to the story.

The protagonist is Claymore Pike, a middle-aged California state investigator who hashes for recreation on the weekends. He's there at the circle when the body is found, and winds up assisting the city police assigned to the case, helping them track down elusive hash witnesses. Along the way you learn a bit about hashing and a bit more about police procedure, poison . . . and pornography.

Quibbles? I have four: Three about hashing and one about the mystery. First (a mere detail), the author tells us that GM stands for "general mismanager." Second (and more serious), he suggests that hash names are an almost bulletproof guarantee of anonymity, preventing the hapless police from getting past first base in their investigation. Hmmm . . . those of us who have been tracked down by real police pursuing "white powder" terrorists will have a hard time believing that. Third is Claymore Pike himself, who's been running with his fictional group of hashers for several months prior to the murder, yet doesn't know anyone's real name . . . a necessary plot device, but as a hasher I have a hard time swallowing it.

My most serious quibble is reserved for the mystery side of the story. Although rich in fascinating detail, the mystery comes up short in a critical area: Even reading between the lines, I never could ascertain why she did it. Pornography had something to do with it (at one point we discover that the harrier she killed had earlier set her up to be filmed while having sex with another man), but this woman is so shamelessly forward about using sex to get what she wants . . . well, let me put it this way: had she, instead of killing the amateur filmmaker, taken over his budding enterprise and turned herself into the Martha Stewart of porn, it would have been more in character.

Quibbles aside, this is a fun read, and it makes you wonder why there aren't more novels with a hashing theme.

Murder on the Run (230 pages) is published by Papa Press and is available only over the Internet, at $19.95 a copy. I regret to say that the binding is substandard, so treat your copy gently.

On On,
Flying Booger