Basket Case (2005)

By Carl Hiaasen
I confess I picked up this novel out of thousands of others because it features a band called “Jimmy and the Slut Puppies” – such a great name for a band. The hero of our story, Jack Tagger, is an experienced journalist who pissed off the boss and so has been relegated to the obituaries desk. Jack now suffers from a kind of obsessive compulsive disorder about dying – he knows off-by-heart how old all the celebrities were when they died and he gets complete physicals every month because he’s worried he might die early like his Dad. However, once members of the Slut Puppies start dying, he has the opportunity to get back into real news stories once again – plus, he was quite a fan of the Slut Puppies way back when, so he would like to find out if justice is being served.

I liked this book a lot – the dialogue is good, it has some humour, it has some suspense, although the plot wasn’t as devious as it could have been – a bit too straightforward. It’s one of those “light and frothy” reads that’s good for beach holidays. I’ll read some more of Hiaasen’s books.

The only thing that really bugged me was Jack Tagger’s name, because it kept reminding me of “Taggart”, the television series, where “mairduh” is done so often and everyone is so very serious.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10
Not outstanding, but fun.