Basket Case
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Extra! Hiaasen delivers edgy mysteryREVIEW BY BECKY OHLSEN Maybe it's true that you catch more flies with honey than vinegar, but Carl Hiaasen uses both, just in case. His latest novel is a characteristically hilarious murder mystery, inside of which hides a fierce indictment of the corporate cancer responsible for the death of the daily newspaper. Regular readers of Hiaasen know that even at his funniest, he's usually making a serious statement about the condition of the modern world. In Basket Case, the fictional milieu of the newspaper is close to his heart: Hiaasen writes a column for the Miami Herald. The novel's protagonist, Jack Tagger, is a crotchety ex-muckraker given to muttering creative insults at editors who cross him -- "fellator of mandrills," for example. A former page-one star, he's been banished to the obituary desk after offending his corporate bosses at a shareholders meeting. Tagger sports a typically Hiaasen-esque abundance of quirks, like keeping a giant dead lizard in his freezer. Exiled from the front page, Tagger was supposed to resign in humiliation. Instead, he amuses himself by torturing his young editor, Emma, and biding his time until "some famous stiff" gives him the chance to put his byline back where it belongs. That famous stiff turns out to be James Stomarti, former lead singer of Jimmy and the Slut Puppies. The rocker's death is deemed an accidental drowning, but it strikes Tagger as suspicious. He sets out to dig up some answers, tracking down Stomarti's widow, a made-for-MTV pop star called Cleo Rio; the surviving band members; and Stomarti's sister Janet, an Internet stripper specializing in military themes. The story races along to its satisfying end, fueled by deliciously bawdy dialogue, absurd scenarios and a likable cast of characters. Hiaasen provides a bucketful of sugar to help his medicine go down; you'll rage against corporate journalism on Tagger's behalf, never noticing how neatly you've been sent to newspaper school. Becky Ohlsen is a freelance writer and former newspaper copy editor in Portland, Oregon.
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