Once a hotshot investigative reporter, Jack Tagger now bangs out obituaries for a South Florida daily, ""plotting to resurrect my career by yoking my byline to some famous stiff."" Jimmy Stoma, the infamous front man of Jimmy and the Slut Puppies, dead in a fishy-smelling scuba ""accident"" may be just the stiff Jack needs-if only he can figure out what happened. Standing in the way are [among others] an editor who wants Jack to ""break her cherry,"" Stoma's ambitious pop-singer widow, and the soulless, profit-hungry newspaper owner Jack once publicly humiliated. As clues from Stoma's music give Jack Tagger the chance to trade obits for a story that could hit the front page, murder gives his career a new lease on life.