Given my interest in the areas of rock music and journalism I decided to pry open Basket Case by Carl Hiaasen. The story is narrated by Jack Tagger, an outspoken newspaperman reduced to writing obituary columns after a run-in with one of his bosses, who stumbles upon the apparently accidental death of 80s rock legend Jimmy Stoma of Jimmy and the Slut Puppies fame.

When he catches Jimmy's ambitious young widow (depicted as a cold-eyed hybrid between Courtney Love and Britney Spears) giving a surreptitious blow job to a trendy producer, his aroused suspicions lead him into investigating a murder mystery involving a frozen snake, missing master-tapes and a camgirl in a SWAT uniform.

Aside from the fact he wrote the book that inspired the Demi Moore farrago Strip Tease I'm not that familiar with Hiaasen's work, but he skilfully balances the shades of light and dark in this crime caper, keeping it entertaining as well as caustic in its depictions of the MTV rock scene and the world of contemporary provincial journalism. Hiaasen shows a keen eye for detail and his familiarity with the milieu and his knack for sharp, witty dialogue and colourful supporting characters runs right through the book to pleasing effect.

If Basket Case does have a serious flaw though, I would suggest that the actual murder plot itself isn't strong or convincing enough to support a book of 419 pages in length. I didn't really buy the motive offered up either, which did damage the credibility of the whole exercise somewhat. But strangely this didn't seem to matter as much as you might think, and on the whole it was an entertaining, frisky read: ideal for holidays and long-haul journeys.