It must have something to do with the humidity, Disneyworld and flying cockroaches
Author Carl Hiaasen has always populated his novels with reporters. He is, after all, a columnist at the Miami Herald. But he outdid him himself in "Basket Case," the latest of his novels. The protagonist is Jack Tagger, an obituary writer for the Union-Register, a mythical south-Florida daily owned by a mythical (yet all too real) chain. Tagger did what every journalist wants to do -- verbally abuse the corporate greed-heads responsible for buying up his newspaper, promising continued journalist excellence, then gut it of all quality. Jack ends up the obituary writer and finds himself covering the death of a former rockstar and his wanna-be rockstar widow. I found it to be a juicy read full of insights into how the business works and sometimes doesn't. I finished it in less than a day.
Fantastic read, as were his earlier novels "Striptease," "Lucky You," "Sick Puppy" and others. What is it about Florida that generates such talented writers, including Edna Buchannan, Elmore Leonard, Dave Barry and Hiaasen?

By the way, "Basket Case" is the name of a bar on West Main Street in Peoria that features karaoke. Avoid it.

posted by Bill at Sunday, February 17, 2002