Keith Snyder's newest mystery novel is COFFIN'S GOT THE DEAD GUY ON THE INSIDE (Walker, $22.95). The title is a dead giveaway that is falling-down funny.

The characters, Generation Xers from Pasadena, Calif., struggle on the fringe of the music scene. Snyder writes vividly of their humor, their passions and their artistic agonies. Two paragraphs on Page 22 come as close to defining the act of creativity in action as anything I have ever read.

The plot is secondary in this constantly fascinating tale: Down-on-his-luck composer Jason Keltner is hired to look after an old friend, musician Paul Reno. That Reno once had an affair with Jason's ex-wife puts just one of many sharp edges on the situation.

Don't be put off by the novel's youthful ambience. It is a delightfully stylistic mystery, and its side trips are as satisfying as veering off the freeway to check out the old Indian burial mounds while driving across Kansas.

--Les Roberts, THE PLAIN DEALER (Cleveland).