The title of Keith Snyder's second novel about electronic music composer Jason Keltner, Coffin's Got the Dead Guy on the Inside, seems slightly awkward until you discover on Page 2 that it's the punch line response to the gag question, "What's the difference between a coffin and a cello?" Much of this amusing mystery consists of the same sort of setup: You're presented with an element that's seemingly askew, then Snyder lets you in on the gag. The adventurous plot is kicked off by the murder of a multimedia guru and the theft of a computer dongle (a security device needed to access certain software). If that isn't contemporary enough, likable protagonist Keltner and his two pals, Martin and Robert, pepper their witty banter with more pop-cult references than Dennis Miller ever dreamed of. Their ensuing search for the dongle takes them from the seedy Pasadena apartment building they share to various trouble spots within the Silicon Empire. It's always a good idea for an author to keep the action slightly ahead of the reader, and that's how Snyder operates during most of this entertaining high-tech tale.

-- Dick Lochte