Name: Basket Case
ISBN: 9780330490184

Carl Hiaasen

Jack Ragger is a frustrated journalist. His outspoken views have relegated him to the obituary page, with his byline never again to disgrace the front page. But Jack has stumbled across a whale of a story that might just resurrect his career.

Basket Case

Sarah Sammis

Years of writing obituaries has made Jack Tagger obsessed with death. Give him an age and he'll tell you who died. He's also a music fan and a frustrated old-school journalist. So when he sees that James Stomarti, lead singer of the Slut Puppies, has died he has to pursue the story.

Basket Case has the humor and wit of Hoot but is written for an adult audience (for themes of sex, drugs and rock-and-roll though without being very explicit). I think teens will still enjoy Basket Case (I certainly would have!) and anyone who enjoys Jimmy Buffett's books will find a similar style of writing (and setting) in Basket Case.

Although the basic mystery of what happened to Jimmy Stoma is pretty straight forward, there are still enough twists and surprises to make for a rewarding page turner. My favorite character in book besides Jack Tagger who was a little morbid for me at times was Janet, Jimmy's sister. She's gum chewing, web-cam entrepreneur who is smarter and more sentimental than she lets on.

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.

Elizabeth Moore

Steven O'Toole

Deanna Kendall

Meghan Wallace

Journalist Jack Tagger wages a war to discover the truth behind the death of musician James Stomarti, formerly with the band Jimmy and the Slut Puppies. Was he murdered? Is someone trying to kill off the Slut Puppies one by one?

Basket Case

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