Rash (Hardcover) by Pete Hautman

Dis, the city of the dead, has a dark secret. Deep within the shadowy alleyways of the city's Victorian streets, Jack the Ripper continues to terrorize mankind after his death. Leo Meriden, an inspector in the last government of the afterlife, finds himself accused of kidnapping souls of the city, an indictment that carries with it a punishment far worse than death. Judge John McAllister alone knows of Leo's innocence, but time wears thin for both men as the city is driven to falling apart. McAllister is set on a path to find the real kidnapper, chasing him from the River Styx to the dark underworld of Dis, uncovering horrifying mysteries that have been buried for thousands of years. The Lost Kings is a story of despair, redemption, and destined sacrifice.

"Of course, without people like us Marstens, there wouldn't be anybody to do the manual labor that makes this country run. Without penal workers, who would work the production lines, or pick the melons and peaches, or maintain the streets and parks and public lavatories? Our economy depends on prison labor. Without it everybody would have to work -- whether they wanted to or not." In the late twenty-first century Bo Marsten is unjustly accused of a causing a rash that plagues his entire high school. He loses it, and as a result, he's sentenced to work in the Canadian tundra, at a pizza factory that's surrounded by hungry polar bears. Bo finds prison life to be both boring and dangerous, but it's nothing compared to what happens when he starts playing on the factory's highly illegal football team. In the meantime, Bork, an artificial intelligence that Bo created for a science project, tracks Bo down in prison. Bork has spun out of control and seems to be operating on his own. He offers to get Bo's sentence shortened, but can Bo trust him? And now that Bo has been crushing skulls on the field, will he be able to go back to his old, highly regulated life? Pete Hautman takes a satirical look at an antiseptic future in this darkly comic mystery/adventure.