2007: #56 – Basket Case (Carl Hiaasen)

Book #56 was Basket Case by Carl Hiaasen. The back of the book reads:

Once a hotshot investigative reporter, Jack Tagger now bangs out obituaries for a South Florida daily, “plotting to resurrect my career by yoking my byline to some famous stiff.” Jimmy Stoma, the infamous front man of Jimmy and the Slut Puppies, dead in a fishy-smelling scuba “accident” may be just the stiff Jack needs-if only he can figure out what happened. Standing in the way are (among others) an editor who wants Jack to “break her cherry,” Stoma’s ambitious pop-singer widow, and the soulless, profit-hungry newspaper owner Jack once publicly humiliated. As clues from Stoma’s music give Jack Tagger the chance to trade obits for a story that could hit the front page, murder gives his career a new lease on life.

This book doesn’t have some of the absurdity of Hiaasen’s other novels, but it was quite good. The relationships are all very believable, and I ended up liking Jack quite a bit. The conclusion of the mystery is also quite satisfying.

Page count: 411 | Word count: 96,684

2006 – Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
2005 – Hard Eight (Janet Evanovich)