Rating: 
Summary: An author finds renewed life
Review: Carl Hiaasen is one of the most amusing writers going around. Early books such as Skintight and Striptease were laugh out loud funny with grotesque characters, incredible plots written against a mild background of social satire.This book is a bit different from Hiaasens previous books as it breaks from some characters who inhabit his previous novels. Its main character is a middle aged journalist who has been exhiled to writting the death notices for a past indiscretion. He discovers that what at first seemed the accidental death of a aged rock star was murder. Part of the joy of Hiaasens books are that they are not just plot driven like a lot of detective fiction or mystery writing. They are written against the background of a real world, and although the books are satires they give insight into the real world. This books characters work in a paper and the decline of serious journalism is one of the themes. This book is not quite as hilarious as some of Hiaasens other books but it is in some ways more interesting. Some of the older characters in the other books had gone around a bit to often and by leaving them out new characters and new ideas get a run. The resolution and villians are all up to the authors high standard and it is a great read.
Rating: 
Summary: My first Carl H. book...a decent summer read.
Review: Will you laugh out loud? No.
Is it clever? Yes.
A page turner? Somewhat. Not a stay-up till 3am to finish it.
Colorful characters? You bet.
Deeply woven plot lines? No. Fairly predictable. Unlike many of the other Amazon reviewers, I am not
from South Florida, so as I read this book, strains of
Jimmy Buffett were swimming around in my head. The book has
a good feel for Florida, music wannabe culture, and
the corporate newspaper grind. I like Mr. Hiassen's wit
and clever observations about life, and I suppose the
cynical, sneering, smart... tone with which he writes is
his calling card. So, a good light summer read, great
for the plane or train. Not if you need a good whodunnit
however.
Rating: 
Summary: Our Poet Lauriate....
Review: Like Mr. Hiaasen, I am a south Florida native and I still live and work here (I'm in Broward County, however, a touch north of the Miami-Dade funhouse, but with it's own quirks of condo commandos, inept election officials and the like, but I digress). I've read Carl religiously for years and he kills me because only a South Florida native like he can write about what life is REALLY like down here and pull it off. If anyone else tried it, it just wouldn't be the same.
Rating:
Summary: A Basket Case Too
Review: For a Hiaasen-novel this one is rather restrained and low-key. No wacko environmentalists, militiamen, ex-Governors, etc., even the most hateful fast-buck operator is not a resident of Florida but California. Hardcore Hiaasen fans probably will ask themselves if next he'll admit to actually liking Disney World ... Almost all characters are likeable, with the exception of some people on the fringes of (post?) MTV fame. The hero is a journalist with an obsession about death - probably a kind of workplace hazard for an obituary writer. But still, it damages one's social life if on learning someone's age the famous people who died at that particular age become the topic of conversation. Talking about a basket case ... Still, the book has the typical Hiaasen-touch: the evil in it get punished and the cynics who read it get to enjoy it ...
Rating:
Summary: It was good but not what I expected
Review: I guess I should have read Carl Hiassen's other books before I read this one. I understand from some of the customer reviews that a good book to start with would have been "Tourist Season". This novel was predictable and a little slow for me. I did enjoy Mr. Hiaasen's descriptive writng when it came to characters and events. I was particularly "tickled" by the gal who used the Internet to make money by dressing in different costumes and "talking" to men. I think the banter between the protaganist and his boss was akin to the movie "His Girl Friday". I do agree with other customers in that I think (even though I have not done it yet), it would be agood idea to read his other novels. I have read excerpts and beleive that his other books outshine this by a mile.
Rating:
Summary: Amusing and Entertaining
Review: Basket Case is an amusing read full of offbeat characters. Hiaasen has a breezy style that is easy to read--he's funny in a cynical kind of way. Basket Case's protagonist, Jack Tagger was once a promising journalist, but he got into trouble with management and is now banished to writing obituaries, which he somehow manages to make amusing for the reader (of the novel, probably not of the obituaries). He learns of the death of a former rock star, and the fun begins. Tagger sees a story in the death, sees that the story being told is not the truth. He digs deeper, believing that this may be his ticket back onto the front page. His experience makes an enjoyable, amusing read.
Rating:
Summary: Worth the read:borrow if you can
Review: I inhaled - have been a Hiaasen addict since Tourist Season. My biggest critisism is that there were not nearly enough of the really whacko characters that I know and love. If you're a first time reader, do yourself a favour and start with Tourist Season. If you don't love it, go away. If you do, read all the rest of them in order to lead up to Basket Case. Then you will understand my review.
Rating:
Summary: A bit disappointed
Review: I have to agree that Hiaasen's early novels were so refreshingly hilarious that his later works pale by comparison. Basket Case, unfortunately, is no exception. While there is humor and mystery, to be sure, it just isn't up to Hiaasen's former standards. If you are thinking of reading Hiassen for the first time, start out with Tourist Season or another of the earlier books. Having said all that, most readers will probably find Basket Case a likeable little read.
Rating:
Summary: Rock-n-Roll Detective Story
Review: Jack Tagger writes death notices for a South Florida daily newspaper. He's 46 and already death-obsessed; nature of the business. Jimmy Stoma, front man for a gone-but-not-forgotten rock group, turns up dead from a diving accident in the Bahamas. Jack writes the death notice based on some bad information given to him by the rocker's pop-singer widow, Cleo Rio. Jack suspects foul-play and is hell-bent on finding out the truth behind Jimmy Stoma's death. With the help Emma, the young and ambitious editor, Juan, close friend and sports writer, and Janet Thrush, Jimmy Stoma's sister, Jack Tagger may actually become the reporter he once was. This is my first book by author Carl Hiaasen. I'm also from South Florida and enjoyed the familiarity in his writing. Hiaasen has been a journalist for the Miami Herald for the past 25 years. His character Jack Tagger must have developed easily from his own experiences with the newspaper. Hiaasen's writing style was very unique to me. He's got a realistic-sarcasm I enjoyed. "The club is lit with fruity-colored strobes that dice up the cigarette haze like a psychedelic SaladShooter. A Nordic-looking DJ in unlikely rasta garb is in command of the synthesized dance music, thumping as tediously as a cardiac monitor." Just an example of the writings of Carl Hiaasen.
Rating:
Summary: Quite wacky indeed!
Review: South Florida's master farceur takes enough off his trademark loony tunes (Sick Puppy, 2000, etc.) to fit some, though not all, the laughs into a whodunit. The corpse is the late James Bradley Stomarti, a.k.a. Jimmy Stoma, the long-ago rocker whose fame, years after he fronted the Slut Puppies, is so great that Courtney Love and the Van Halen brothers turn out for his funeral. So does Jack Tagger, banished from the Union-Register investigative team to the obituary desk after he told off the paper's greedy new owner in front of the shareholders. Jack has succeeded in getting enough material from Jimmy's widow, one-hit singer Cleo Rio, to file the very first obit on the one-time star. Unfortunately, much of the material seems to be untrue, or at least suggestively incomplete. Jimmy wasn't producing the new album Cleo's been plugging at every opportunity, insists his sister, Janet Thrush, but working on his own comeback record. And there are some peculiar discrepancies about Jimmy's scuba-diving death in the Bahamas. Before Jack can get Janet to request a full autopsy on Jimmy, though, Cleo's had his body cremated. Still curious, Jack digs up Jimmy's diving partner, fellow Slut Puppy alum Jay Burns; hours later, as if on cue, Burns is dead. Is somebody trying to wipe out the whole band? Reluctantly aided by his gung-ho editor, comely Emma Cole, Jack presses on, and is soon attacked for his trouble by a thug he fends off with the frozen corpse of Colonel Tom, his late pet lizard-one of the many funny trimmings here that don't have very much to do with the story. The giggles throughout, in fact, are authentic, but this time the crazies only nibble at the edges of the dutiful detective story instead of disporting themselves smack into the middle of things, as they've done in Hiaasen's more inspired crime comedies.
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