Basket Case: Carl Hiaasen

The protagonist is a newspaper writer who covers an obituary on an old rock star. As he interviews family members and the spouse he starts to suspect foul play in the singer's "accidental" death. I love how quirky Hiaasen makes his characters. The protagonist knows a famous person that has died at every age and is obsessed with his own demise. Every time he talks to his mother he pressures her to tell him when his father, who is not a part of his life, died. She refuses. The story moves along once he figures out the motive for the deceased's wife to murder him. She had no artistic ability and wanted her husband to give her a catchy song he had written; He was trying to get back in the scene, not having had any hits since the 80's and refuses. The writer comes across the tape and makes a trade to get his kidnapped girlfriend back to the boons. The book ends on his birthday when his mother sends him his father's obituary, His father died at the age he just passed.