Carl Hiaasen, “Basket Case”, Large Print  by Thorndike Press (2002) 514 pp.

 In my pursuit of novels involving Florida, my sister-in-law recommended this author.  I found the book quite entertaining, even though I seldom read fiction.  The plot of this book is set in the Miami area, hence the Florida link.  It was hard to put the book down and I have a few more of this author’s books on-hold at my public library.

Below taken and edited from Publishers Weekly:

Hiassen follows the adventures of Jack Tagger, down-on-his-luck journalist relegated to the obit beat at a small town Florida daily. While researching a death notice, Jack stumbles by accident upon an actual news story: former rocker Jimmy Stoma has drowned while diving in the Bahamas, and his widow, wannabe star Cleo Rio, can't convince Jack that his death was accidental. …But when things turn violent and Jack suddenly has to defend himself with a giant frozen lizard, he enlists the help of his sportswriter friend Juan Rodriguez and teenage club scene veteran Carla Candilla to try to find out why someone is killing off has-been sleaze rockers. The book is quite humorous.