not as good as striptease, didn't quite get into it as much. but still hiaasen, and still good. ( )

Another Carl Hiaasen review! This time a novel about a dead as a doorknob rocker Jimmy Stoma of the world famous band "Slut Puppies".

Obit reporter Jack Tagger would love an opportunity to revive his once respected front page reporter status. After messing up a case in a major way and causing humiliation to the newspaper he was thrown into Obits. After his move he became obsessed with death and dying, to the point of driving away the love of his life.

When Jack comes across the obit for Jimmy Stoma he is taken back to the days when he was a big fan of the Slut Puppies. Unfortunately, not many people even remember the band, let alone care about the lead singer kicking the bucket. Jack finds the circumstances of Jimmy Stoma's demise to be wildly suspicious and twists his boss' arm into letting him investigate it further.

The story twists and turns from there. Jack finds himself interested in someone he never thought his candle would burn for. He also finds himself shocked at the news of his former loves engagement, to a real cheesy doodle nonetheless. He also finds out sinister answers to the questions surrounding Jimmy Stoma's death.

Check this book out. I liked it just as much as I liked Skinny Dip. Well written, thoroughly engaging, this book is a must! ( )

This book doesn't have some of the absurdity of Hiaasen's other novels, but it was quite good. The relationships are all very believable, and I ended up liking Jack quite a bit. The conclusion of the mystery is also quite satisfying. ( )

This was different from other Hiaasen novels in that there really wasn't an environmental story to tell. It was another Florida novel, but it was about the music business and the newspaper business rather than evil developers trying to build somewhere that something is endangered and people being killed to cover it up or whatever. Hiaasen also writes (wrote?) a newspaper column, so I think it's an arena he's quite familiar with. That being said, I think it's a little on the icky side that the protagonist hooks up with his editor, who is 20+ years younger than him (he's something like 5 years younger than her father) as it strikes me as the way an older man who has fantasies about having sex with young women would write. Somehow I felt more of the author's presence in the story but not in a good way. It was still an enjoyable read. It would make a good airplane book. ( )

When Jimmy Stoma, former lead singer of the now-defunct 1970s rock band
Jimmy Stoma and the Slut Puppies, dies in a diving accident in the
Bahamas, no one raises an eyebrow except Jack Tagger, the obit writer at
the Union-Register, a small south Florida daily newspaper. Something
just doesn't smell right to Jack, who wasn't always just an obit writer.
Once upon a time he had been a crackerjack reporter, putting his
byline on the front page on a regular basis, until he'd had that
unfortunate run-in with his new boss and called him a slimy little
gut-crawling weasel right there in the middle of a stock holders
meeting. Now he was doomed to forever write obituaries of
semi-interesting people and to be obsessed with death.

Jimmy's death and the utter lack of sadness on the part of his pretty
young widow, Cleo Rio (the one hit wonder who's fading fast on the
charts and in the hearts of her fans) makes Jack wonder what's going on,
but it's when the rest of the Slut Puppies start dying that he begins to
catch on to what's happening.

Like the other Hiaasen books, this one is absolutely delightful,
skillfully written with humor and finesse, introducing characters that
jump of the page and come to life. This can't really be classes as a
mystery because the culprit is revealed early on, but it's all about the
build up to the finish with Hiaasen. You just can't wait to see the bad
guys (and gals) get theirs in the end. There's places where I laughed
out loud (gosh, I love doing that when reading a good book! LOL) and
the finish of this one was satisfying enough. ( )