Basket Case

Well, for whatever reason, I am still on the Hiaasen bandwagon; actually I have just leapt off onto the side of the road after closing the cover on my second Hiaasen novel after Sick Puppy (2000): Basket Case. 

I have to admit that this one was a little more engrossing and enjoyable than the former, so we’re off to a pleasant start. Basket Case tells the story of demoted obituary writer, Jack Tagger, looking for a way to resurrect his career. He believes he finds it when a famous rock-musician dies and he covers the obit. After conflicting interviews with the deceased’s widow and sister, the death of James Bradley Stomarti takes on an element of mystery, maybe even foul play and Jack makes it his mission to find out the truth. Did Stomarti’s wife murder him? Does she really have a new CD coming out? And why is there a lizard in the freezer? 

In comparison to the last Hiaasen experience, I came off a little better with this one. I think that comes mainly from the fact that this book is written in the first person register. Already, it’s a lot easier to latch on to a character and build a rapport with them: ah the magic of the first person. 

And there are worse protagonists than Jack Tagger to come to like. A cynical type who’s patriotic love for journalism has been replaced with a morbid fascination/fear of death and its finality, Jack’s story is fascinating, especially during the book’s climax, namely because his ‘over-the-hill’ attitude about life coupled with his fear of death makes for a weird, lopsided, yet strangely balanced reading experience. Amidst the backtracks, dead-ends, and moments where we know he’s gotten in too deep, Jack goes through this subtle and weird kind of character arc, which is nice to read about. 

The intended humour shines through a lot brighter here than it did in Sick Puppy. Sometimes it’s ironic, other times it’s just plain funny and the punchlines are all written simply rather than in some sort of convoluted labyrinth of setup. 

But I have decided that where I struggle with Hiaasen is in his short and snappy style of writing. Whilst short and blunt sentences with just enough description and adjectives so as to paint a picture are fine, for crime fiction I cannot help but desire sentences and paragraphs with more breadth. I’m not talking Dickensian type breadth that pads out a sentence into a whole half-page, but a little more volume would not go astray here, especially when depicting particularly graphic scenes. As I read it, everything is just glossed over, aside from the longer portions of text that describe the corruption and politics within the industry, which sometimes feel that more effort has been put into them than anything else. 

On top of this, the pace is jolting and changes speed a number of times: as does the tense in a couple of chapters. 

But, at the end of the day the book is easy enough to read and each chapter does end with one cleverly constructed, if a bit clichéd and obvious, sentence that piques your interest to read on. 

Basket Case is a fun crime novel filled with plot misdirection, mystery, whodunits, action, suspense, and memorable characters and whilst I may not personally warm to Hiaasen’s style, his stories are definitely fascinating and engaging. 

Author: Carl Hiaasen. 

Published: Alfred A. Knoph (USA) & Macmillan (UK), 2002.