Max Mooth-Cyber Sleuth and the Case of the Zombie Virus

By Stephen Kogon

Book Overview

Nineteen-year-old Max Mooth is a cyber sleuth, dedicated to ensuring the safety and well-being of computers the world over. Aiding him in this effort is his eight-year-old sleuthing partner, Jake Zellner, who goes by the professional name, Mr. Z. Max's nemesis, a millionaire named Xefland Aurcracker, has sworn revenge against Max for getting him expelled from college four years ago, and now the time has come to exact that revenge. Aurcracker does so by hiring minions to create the most evil computer virus ever, the Zombie Virus, and then having them launch it upon the world, framing Max in the process. Furthermore, Aurcracker schemes to steal away Max's love interest, Abby, in order to further defeat him. So having only sixty hours to save the world's computers and his good name, Max and Mr. Z finally devise a plan that might stop the Zombie Virus-a plan that brings the fate of Max, Abby and computers everywhere down to the bare wire.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0595333249
• ISBN13: 9780595333240
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Length: 120 Pages
• Weight: 0.41 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.0" x 9.0"
• Age Range: 4 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Preschool to Grade 7

Customer Reviews

Imaginative, Irreverent, Irrestible

What a delightful surprise it was for this old fart to perform family service by reading my young cousin's book and find myself enjoying it! The book held my attention from start to finish, and even though the genre isn't my thing, I was impressed by Stephen's obvious knowledge of his subject matter. I was also impressed by his rich imagination, his clever wit, and his skill at weaving his plot. I even laughed aloud a couple of times! One suggestion for future writing is to parenthetically define foreign words, i.e., "Mi casa is NOT su casa," (my house is not your house,) and that great Jewish substitute for omigod, "Oy." This is a book I'll share with my librarian friends and give as a gift to my 12 year old grandson. Good job! Kitty Mady

Starred Review From Kirkus Discoveries

Just as Hannibal Lecter became a cannibal before him, what choice does a boy named Max Mooth have but to become a cyber sleuth, really? Especially when we learn that he's something of a boy genius, out of college at 17 and essentially friendless. But to the septuagenarians in his building (his grandma raised him) and a somber eight-year-old known as Mr. Z., Max is an amiable, goofy sort who spends his days spitting zingy one-liners while tracking down virus creators, who have the nerve to harm innocent computers. We meet Max at a high point; he's just met a girl named Abby who also names her gadgets, and he's thoroughly smitten. It's too bad that an old college nemesis, the lazy, pulchritudinous Xefland Aurcracker (and with a name like that, what choice do you have but to be the bad guy?), is out to steal his girl and frame Max for a virus that his anti-viral company is about to unleash. Will Max be able to get (and keep) the girl? Will he foil Xefland's evil plan in time? Readers will find the answers in this charming, well-paced story that could easily be a Nickelodeon series. This certainly has TV written all over it, and hopefully Kogon will keep Max's adventures coming.

Great book.

It's an excellent book. you should buy it. Great job stevie!

Genuinely funny dialogue, and a cast of quirky characters

Max Mooth is a socially immature but intellectually precocious nineteen-year-old (he graduated from college at seventeen) with an inordinate fondness for computers--his favorite things in the world, with the possible exception of pudding. Indeed, Max is dedicated to tracking down cyber-criminals, the nefarious disseminators of computer viruses, which he does with the aid of an impressive array of high-tech gadgetry. The Robin to Max's Batman is Mr. Z, a similarly precocious eight-year-old who eschews age-appropriate play and views the world with the cynical eye of a noir detective. Like any hero worthy of the name, Max is saddled with a nemesis, in his case an enemy from his Berkeley days, the delightfully over-the-top Xefland Aurcracker. Aurcracker is the filthy-rich, computer-challenged CEO of a company that produces virus protection software. Aurcracker intends, with the assistance of a minion or two, to release a devastating computer virus, frame Max for the crime, and rake in piles of cash by selling the only software capable of defeating it. At the same time, Aurcracker means to break Max's heart by stealing away the girl he's just met and fallen for (principally because she is nearly as fond of her iBook as he is of his own numerous computers). Max Mooth--Cyber Sleuth is not a perfect book. Max punctuates his speech with corny computerisms--"Feeling downloadable, punk?"--that grow tiresome. Occasional scenes don't work because they strain credibility: climbing a muddy hill, Max is beset by an unlikely number of worms; he extricates himself from difficult situations with the homemade screwdriver he carries around, which he fashioned, inexplicably, out of paper clips. Max lives in a retirement home, having been raised there by a now deceased grandmother. This is interesting in that it adds a further layer to Max's hesitant relationship with adulthood--the boy/man is more comfortable with children and the elderly than with his own age group. But the implausibility of the arrangement is distracting. These shortcomings, however, are relatively minor, and they pale in comparison with what the book has to offer: a cast of delightfully quirky characters and some genuinely amusing dialogue and situations. For example, Aurcracker assembles a team of psychiatrists to ask them how best to steal Max's girlfriend from him. "I'm pursuing a woman," he says to them, "mainly to deny a nemesis from having her by completely lying, deceiving and pulling the wool over her eyes. Any ideas how I should proceed?" Meanwhile, Max, having blocked the door to a certain Mr. Underwood's office with a chair, frantically searches the room and Underwood's computer while its owner is away: "Just then, the door hit the chair, blocking it. Max jumped, and quickly turned off Underwood's computer. He dove over the desk, back in his chair, as Underwood pushed his way in. Max appeared bored, leafing through his briefcase. "'What was a chair doing there?' Underwood asked su

Max Mooth terrific story

"A well told and entertaining story that's so much more than it seems. There's a terrific sense of the visual which adds to the overall work. Also there are significant well layered themes that make this an important read. I'm looking forward to the next Max Mooth novel."