Basket Case by Carl Hiaasen

Published by Grand Central Publishing

ISBN  0-446-61193-X

This is my first experience of a Carl Hiaasen book.  My husband read it before I did, and he was rolling about with laughter every time he picked it up.  On his suggestion, I gave Basket Case a try, and was soon caught up in the antics of the lead character.  Jack Tagger is a journalist whose career has seen better days, but due to a faux pas in his past, he is now writing obituaries for a local Florida newspaper.

When a famous rock singer is killed in a scuba diving accident, he begins to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death, which does not please his bosses.  He uncovers a complicated and confusing trail of events, which take him to the Caribbean and California in his quest for a front page story to revive his flagging career.  Finding the truth about the death of the victim tests his journalistic skills to the limit, and he has to overcome many obstacles to reach the truth.

We meet the family and friends of Jimmy Stoma, the dead singer in question, and the members of his old band the Slut Puppies.    His widow is a singer, who is planning to revive her career with a new song.  His sister disappears after her house is broken into, and there are other deaths to explain along the way. 

Jack is at loggerheads with his immediate boss, Emma, who wants him to write an obituary on a dead rabbi and leave the pop star story alone, but he continues to delve and he eventually gets to write the front page story that he has been looking for.  He now hopes that his time in the doldrums of newspaper journalism is over, and his career will hit the heights he has been working towards.

Fast paced, funny, and entertaining.