It is quoted several times throughout the book, and is printed in its entirety at the end (credited to Jimmy Stoma and Warren Zevon).

[2] Jack Tagger Jr., an obituary writer for the South Florida Union-Register, becomes intrigued upon seeing a death notice for James Bradley Stomarti, a.k.a.

Jack was an investigative reporter until he was demoted for publicly insulting the newspaper's publisher, Race Maggad III.

Later that night, a burglar breaks into Jack's apartment and attacks him with the frozen corpse of a dead Savannah Monitor lizard kept in his freezer.

When the two search Jay's boat, an external hard drive is found beneath the false bottom of a scuba tank.

Meeting her at a club, he catches sight of Cleo's boyfriend, a man who calls himself "Loreal" and claims to be a record producer.

A few days later, she excitedly tells him that Jimmy's bassist, Tito Negroponte, survived an attempted murder in Los Angeles.

Jack flies there and interviews Tito, who puts his finger on why Cleo killed Jimmy: she wanted a song from his album, titled "Shipwrecked Heart", for herself.

Janet resurfaces, having fled Cleo's goons, and admits that she switched the tags on a pair of coffins at the funeral home, meaning Jimmy was actually buried in the wrong man's grave.

Cleo is convicted of murder; Jack sails back onto the front page covering the story while Jimmy's posthumous album is a success.

Jack finds an ally in MacArthur Polk, the newspaper's former publisher, who owns a large number of shares in Maggad's company.