Rating: 
Summary: competent Hiaasen silliness; he's done better
Review: Carl Hiaasen's latest novel, 'Basket Case', is yet another comedy-mystery by Florida's most funny and cynical writer. In this installment we have the suspicious death of former rock start being investigated by an obituary writer from a local newspaper. It is silly without being stupid, and it comes with many funny one-liners. However unlike Hiaasen's better works (such as 'Skin Tight') the book's satiric bite is somewhat lame, and the kooky characters aren't particularly memorable. So it seems 'Basket Case' doesn't rise above the middle ranks of Hiaasen novels. But it certainly is enjoyable enough.Bottom line: okay, but perhaps best left to true Hiaasen fans.
Rating:
Summary: Lukewarm to me, may be your favorite.
Review: This was fine, but what's the point? Who wants to read a "fine" book anyways? Basket Case is well-enough written, has interesting enough characters, splashy settings, blah, blah, blah. It just didn't click for me. I wandered through the story thinking "oh, that's interesting, but so what"? The humor wasn't that funny, the plot twists that stunning. Hiaasen' style just is not my cup of tea. I read one of his earlier books on the recommendation of a friend, Sick Puppy (that's the books name, not the friend). I had the same reaction; well-enough written, sort of funny but just not my type, not compelling. I respect him enough as a pop fiction writer but Hiaasen will never be a writer that I anxiously await his next offering.
There are plenty of other great reviews that I've read that lead me to suggest that you pick up a copy of Basket Case. You may find it hits your spot. It just missed mine.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Mystery for Rock n'Rollers !
Review: This was one of the most enjoyable fiction books I have read in a long while. For anyone who enjoys rock and roll, this is a great "who done it" book. Not only does the author keep you guessing - but he throws humor in along the way. Alot of these characters sound like they walked right out of a night club on the Hollywood strip, or from the pages of Rolling Stone magazine. The frozen lizard part is really funny. I could not put this book down, I had to find out what happened next. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent suspenseful and humourous read
Review: I loved all the Travis McGee books and noticed that some of them had an introduction by Carl Hiaasen. Hence, when I saw this book, I decided to buy it. I have to admit that I really loved it. I read it start to finish in a 24 hour period begrudgingly stopping only to sleep. The suspense is great, the humour is fabulous. The characters are wild and yet, believable. It has a touch of rock and roll, a lot of newspaper, a touch of Florida, a little California ... This one is a keeper for me.
Rating:
Summary: A Slam Dunk
Review: I doubt there's anyone out there who hasn't heard of Carl Hiaasen yet, even though only one of his books has been made into a film. I had seen him for years before the garish, comedic, Florida-themed book cover that was his visual trademark was coopted by the likes of Lawrence Shames and Hialeah Jackson. These writers' publishers elected to make their books look like Hiaasen's for good reason - Hiaasens's books were gems, perfect, shiny little pieces of literature that could entertain, enlighten and captivate. "Basket Case" is the latest such gem. In a way, it is simplest Hiaasen book yet - Obit writer Jack Tagger discovers some funny business behind the death of James Stomarti, frontman for the fictional Jimmy and the Slut Puppies, and tries to find out who's beind it. Whodunnit is fairly straightforward and not even really important. This book is really about Tagger and his search for truth and comfort in a world gone dispassionate. Consider the subplots. Tagger, as an obituarian, is obsessed with death and dwells on the death dates of countless celebrities as he compares his own age to their ages at the time of death. He is also obsessed with learning about his dead father, whom he never knew. He is obsessed with his ex-girlfriend, whom he lost because he could not face the future, could only count down the days until his own death. He is obsessed with true journalism while working for a corporate paper that has lost all journalistic integrity. Clearly, this book is something more than a murder mystery. It is a rumination on age and self. It is an examination of love and expectation. Hiaasen himself seems to be questioning age, questioning death, reflecting on his own life as a journalist. But he has wrapped all this serious content into a hilarious package so we don't notice the bittersweetness until the very end. That is a tribute to Hiaasen's skill as a comedian. As usual in a Hiaasen novel, the characters are real, yet very, very odd, they are the kind of characters that other Florida-based writer wish they could write. "Basket Case" is a wonderful book.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I think too many of the other reviews are biased by Hiaasen's previous work. This one was a real disappointment. The plot was weak, there was only one decent character (Carla), and there was a gratuitous frozen lizard to give it the Hiaasen trademark. I've read and enjoyed Hiaasen's other books so his name alone was enough for me to buy this one. The next time I see one of his books I'll be more careful.
Rating:
Summary: Basket Case is . . . a Basket Case
Review: Basket Case is a very funny book. If it's the first Carl Hiaasen book you've read, you'll be rolling in the aisles. But if you've read Stormy Weather or Native Tongue (my favorite), you'll be disappointed. Mr. Hiaasen has an extraordinary sense of humor. He's very articulate and has a great delivery. But like a gifted series on television (granted there are few) eventually you run out of plots. And if you continue to use the misunderstood but passionate and cynical but lovable and extremely funny protagonist, who has looked for love in all the wrong places who suddenly finds a fabulous girlfriend AND solves the crime, well pardon the run-on sentence but there's only so many times you can go to that well. If you're going to be comedic, you have to be fresh. Maybe there's a Carl Hiaasen out there who is sitting on a manuscript that's angry, righteous and slick, and not funny. But Basket Case becomes repetitive and tedious. We've heard that joke before. A lot of times. It reminds me of a comedian who goes on a rant. At first you nod your head in agreement. After the 7th or 8th time you realize that the anger and outrage is for effect and it detracts from the message.
Rating:
Summary: almost believable
Review: Don't get me wrong: I liked this book. But I wish I could have reviewed it before it went to press. The humor is brilliant, the characters either likable, interesting or both - but there are some glaring flaws. How do Jack and Emma step out of the newsroom where their mutual antagonism is real and entertaining - and fall into romantic, hot sex...because she grazed his lips with a single kiss??? Nah. I had great sympathy for Jack's loneliness, but the solution was too canned. Unbelievable. My other beef had to do with the antics around the band, the Slut Puppies (love that name). None of it is so interesting. When the members are attacked and/or murdered, who cares? That the widow killed the dead rocker "for a song" is fantastic. But the ruthlessness and cold-blooded temperment that it would take to murder one's own husband: it is not there. The fact that she gives different facts in various interviews, does not establish her as a cold-blooded killer. The premise almost works. It's the weaving of the tale that doesn't hold together. I've read most if not all of Hiaason's books. I will continue to read them, every one.
Rating:
Summary: Better than a poke in the eye with a frozen lizard
Review: For a couple of decades, Carl Hiaasen has been serving up a stew of broad chuckles, tight suspense, and whoops of unbelieving laughter at the homicidal antics of [some joker]in South Florida. He's entitled to lay back for one year and just phone one in from the beach, as he has here. It's worth it to accept the charges on the call. Still, anyone who hasn't made Mr. Hiaasen's acquaintance previously should begin elsewhere - with the gripping Stormy Weather, or the devastating over-the-top satire of Native Tongue. This is a perfectly decent read, but it's more predictable than I've come to expect from him, and relatively heavy on the chuckles and light on the whoops. Hiaasen's anger is nearly as much of a national treasure as his sense of humor. In "Basket Case" he's packing a satirical Winchester instead of an Uzi, but keeping his sights steady. This time his target isn't despoilers of the natural environment, but despoilers of the cultural environment dearest to him - the city newsroom. The narrator, Jack Taggart, is a middle-aged reporter, working for a once-proud daily that got bought up by a national chain, dumbed down, staffed down, and milked dry for quick profit. For committing the crime of aggravated honesty over the situation, Jack's been demoted to the paper's ever-shrinking obituary page. When Jimmy Stoma, former head headbanger for the bad boy band Jimmy and the Slut Puppies, buys the fish farm in deep Caribbean waters, Jack schemes to turn the story into his first front page byline in years. When Stoma's all too merry widow Cleo can't get her story straight, the scoop balloons into the trademark Hiaasen insanity, full of sharply sketched characters and of heavies made all the more dangerous by the fact that their brains must be classified as blunt instruments. Yes, the frozen lizard is in there, bless its cold blooded heart. I was mildly disappointed to find no snake charmers, no tangles with the mental health establishment, or any of the other amusing double meanings with which this author's titles are usually freighted. "Basket Case" was simply the title of dead rocker Stoma's biggest radio hit back in the day. Warren Zevon collaborated with Hiaasen to write the song and escort it out from the novel into the real world, as one cut on what sadly appears to be his final album, "My Ride's Here".
Rating:
Summary: Hiaasen snarling into the mirror
Review: Hiaasen has taken a page out of his own reporter's notebook for this one, takes on a whole new set of despoilers of paradise and the results are excellent. Though he is clearly the master of lampooning the rapacious development community of Florida, the bit was becoming slightly worn and Hiaasen was clearly not afraid to face up to it. He moves away from that comfortable niche with Basket Case and serves up a hearty helping of lunacy and [not too bright people] stomping across the tropical landscape of his home state. Buy this book and all the rest and Carl may have a chance yet to save us from our own worst selves.
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