The voice of Basket Case is Jack Tagger, an investigative reporter who, because he publicly insulted Race Maggad III, the greedy and ignorant new owner of the paper, has been condemned to writing obituaries. Tagger is a gifted writer, whose suggestions for obituary headlines are riotous. He also has an obsession with early death and seems to know the age at which every celebrity in history died - relating them inevitably to his own age.
The mystery relates to the "accidental drowning" of Jimmy Stoma the wild lead singer for Jimmy and the Slut Puppies - but the meat of the book is in the characters and dialog rather than the mystery.
One likable and amusing minor character is Ike, a 90+ year old man whom Tagger meets fishing on the pier. Late in the book, when Tagger has quit the newspaper (no spoilers here!), he runs into Ike and introduces him to a lady friend (no spoiler!) - The lady friend asks Ike to tell Jack why he should go back to the paper:
He wipes the blade of his fillet knife on a leg of his trousers. "Number one, you're not cut out for a regular job."
No argument there.
"Number two, you still get a bang out of the news." His crooked fingers are working a large sharp hook into a bloodless chunk of mullet. "And number three, you can make things happen, writing for a paper," he says. "Make a difference in the world. That's a damn fact."
This is one of the few serious parts of the book, but my dad was a newspaperman and it rang true. Delightful read!
