Once a hotshot investigative reporter, Jack Tagger now bangs outobituaries for a South Florida daily, "plotting to resurrect mynewspaper career by yoking my byline to some famous stiff." Jimmy Stoma,the infamous front man of Jimmy and the Slut Puppies, dead in afishy-smelling scuba "accident," might be the stiff of Jack's dreams --if only he can figure out what happened.
Standing in the way are (among others) his ambitious young editor, whohasn't yet fired anyone but plans to "break her cherry" on Jack; therock star's pop-singer widow, who's using the occasion of her husband'sdeath to re-launch her own career; and the soulless, profit-hungry ownerof the newspaper, whom Jack once publicly humiliated at a stockholders'meeting.
With clues from the dead rock singer's music, Jack ultimately unravelsJimmy Stoma's strange fate -- in a hilariously hard-won triumph formuckraking journalism, and for the death-obsessed obituary writer himself.
"Always be halfway prepared" is Jack Tagger's motto -- and it's morethan enough to guarantee a wickedly funny, brilliantly entertainingnovel from Carl Hiaasen.
