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Bill Fitzhugh
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Pest Control Paperback – Bargain Price, March 29, 2005

by Bill Fitzhugh (Author)
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 266 ratings
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Bob Dillon can't get a break. A down-on-his-luck exterminator, all he wants is his own truck with a big fiberglass bug on top -- and success with his radical new, environmentally friendly pest-killing technique. So Bob decides to advertise.

Unfortunately, one of his flyers falls into the wrong hands. Marcel, a shady Frenchman, needs an assassin to handle a million-dollar hit, and he figures that Bob Dillon is his man. Through no fault -- or participation -- of his own, this unwitting pest controller from Queens has become a major player in the dangerous world of contract murder.

And now Bob's running for his life through the wormiest sections of the Big Apple -- one step ahead of a Bolivian executioner, a homicidal transvestite dwarf, meatheaded CIA agents, cabbies packing serious heat ... and the world's number-one hit man, who might just turn out to be the best friend Bob's got.

Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. Book 1 of 2
    Assassin Bug Thrillers
  2. Print length
    320 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    William Morrow Paperbacks
  5. Publication date
    March 29, 2005
  6. Dimensions
    5.31 x 0.72 x 8 inches
  7. ISBN-10
    0060815302
  8. ISBN-13
    978-0060815301
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Stingingly Funny.” (Poeple )

“PEST CONTROL is an eccentrically comic take on the high-tech thriller...[it is a] strange and funny...curiously appealing little novel of intrigue” (National Public Radio - All Things Considered )

“A very funny and interesting book...give it to someone who needs a good laugh.” (San Antonio Express-News )

“...a clever and satisfying debut...offbeat, engaging, and very funny reading, it is wholly successful.” (Washington Post )

“[Pest Control is]...hilarious [and] wonderful...Fitzhugh is a funny man and Pest Control is a funny book.” (Elle )

“...this is one roach motel you’ll gladly check into.” (Time Out New York )

“This debut novel...hinges on a delightfully buggy idea that takes full comic advantage of New York City.” (Publishers Weekly )

“A sweetly comic thriller...consistently sunny and good-humored.” (Kirkus Reviews )

“Pest Control is uber-contemporary, a hilarious, running-in-circles blend of droll farce and warped humor.” (Austin American-Statesman )

“This debut novel is...goofy but great fun.” (Dallas Morning News )

About the Author

Bill Fitzhugh is the author of seven novels. He still has all of his original organs and plans to keep it that way until the very end, at which point he is willing to let the doctors divvy them up among anyone (with the exception of politicians) who might need them. However, he makes no promises about the quality of his liver. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and all of her organs.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B000GH2YGU
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ William Morrow Paperbacks (March 29, 2005)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0060815302
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0060815301
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 7.2 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.31 x 0.72 x 8 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 266 ratings

About the author

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Bill Fitzhugh

Bill Fitzhugh

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Bill Fitzhugh offers you a choice in biography. Here's the first one: Bill Fitzhugh is the award-winning author of nine satiric crime novels. His most recent is “The Exterminators," the sequel to "Pest Control" which was one of Amazon's Top 50 Mysteries when it published. Peter Millar of The Times (London) said "Pest Control" was "One of the funniest, most off-beat thrillers to hit the bookstalls in years. An action-packed plot, stuffed with streetwise lines and larger-than-life characters."

The New York Times put him in a league with Carl Hiaasen and Elmore Leonard, calling him “a strange and deadly amalgam of screenwriter and comic novelist.” Film rights to two of his novels ("Pest Control" and "Cross Dressing") have been sold to Warner Brothers and Universal Studios respectively. "Pest Control" was also produced as a German radio show and a stage musical in Los Angeles. Translated into six languages, Fitzhugh is currently adapting a Peter Straub short story for PCH Films.

Or you might like this bio better: Bill Fitzhugh has been described as “of average height” and “not particularly fast in the hundred meters, though quick enough to escape capture that one time.” According to the New York Times, “He is the author of enough books to keep you busy for a while.” Confounding critics and readers alike, his series of stand-alone novels explores the dark underbelly of the world of testicle transplants, the international kitty porn industry, and pie-eating contests. His novel, I Think I Need My Stomach Pumped features a new protagonist: Angus McNaughty, a loner and an alley cat, who travels only with a toothbrush and furball medicine. Fitzhugh lives in Los Angeles with very little hope of a decent future.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
266 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Rima G. H.
5.0 out of 5 stars What could go wrong?
Reviewed in the United States on September 24, 2012
Verified Purchase
Why do I love Bill Fitzhugh's books? I'm a little worried about what that says about me. Pest Control is off-kilter and hilariously disturbing, and I learned way, way more about bugs than I ever wanted to know.

The central character, Bob Dillon, wants to create a non-pesticide cockroach killer. What could be more "green" and "environmentally friendly" than a natural cockroach killer? Ok, a genetically enhanced mutant cockroach killer bug, but what could go wrong with that?

That's what this book is about. I first read Pest Control back when it was first released in paperback, but recently bought the Kindle version so I can read it whenever necessary.

Be sure to read the sequel, The Exterminators, too.
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Robert Downs
4.0 out of 5 stars Your Latest Life Lesson
Reviewed in the United States on June 14, 2014
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If you’re here for your latest life lesson, it’s this: Don’t ever answer an exterminator ad. You might find your life terminated, after the CIA takes a hit out on you. Sure, the money sounds good and all, but fifty grand ain’t what it used to be. And if I have a choice between life and death, I think I’ll go with life, Bob.

PEST CONTROL finds us in the midst of a painful existence of one Bob Dillon (not to be confused with the Bob Dylan) who has some trouble with bugs after he shoves a garden hose up his boss’s nose. Yes, the man has anger management issues, and he’s probably breathed in his share of toxic fumes (which doesn’t really help his cause). What he lacks in employment, though, he more than makes up for in spirit. Or you could just call it gusto. He hops up on desks and shouts to the heavens and breeds beetles in his spare room and deals with one pissed off landlord on a semi-regular basis.

If that isn’t bad enough, he also has a hit man named Klaus (not to be confused with Santa) breathing down his neck. There’s also a little person who has a penchant for pink panties, which wouldn’t be so bad except the she is a he; a hit woman (after all we’re equal opportunity employers here) with a fondness for shoving white truffles down the gullet of her latest victim; a cowboy with his own rodeo and a fondness for killing; and other nefarious individuals who shall not be named.

If you’re looking for the straight and narrow, you won’t find it here. What you will find are enough strange individuals to fill an entire city block, an over-the-top plot that at times had trouble maintaining believability, dialogue that shuddered, a narrative that might have had a loophole or two in logic and a bit of a jump in time, and pages plastered with dead insects in every possible manner known to the pest community.

If you can believe it, this was even musical material. While I’m not sure I understand that particular angle, I did find myself amused at what took place over the course of this tale. If you have a penchant for half-baked tales that could have been composed on the back of a napkin after you (and possibly the author) surrounded yourselves in a smoke-filled haze, then this story’s for you. Just make sure you wash your hands first and then possibly after.

Robert Downs
Author of Falling Immortality: Casey Holden, Private Investigator
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C. A Scovel
5.0 out of 5 stars Quick and Fantastic Read
Reviewed in the United States on March 9, 2004
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Pest Control is a well written, fun adventure of Bob Dillon. Bob is an exterminator who is looking for work, after quitting his job to follow his dream of an all natural pest control. Bob applies to an ad in the paper for an exterminator and this is when the story shifts. The ad was for a professional killer - not a bug hunter.
The characters of this story draw you in and create a world that you feel apart of. Even the #1 killer has a hold on you. This story is crazy, out-there, and just enough of reality to keep you believing. A must read!
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sandrajean wainwright
3.0 out of 5 stars plot is a stretch
Reviewed in the United States on January 24, 2024
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got a few chuckles out of the book but it was too silly in so many ways. author didn't pull off the Three Stooges or Peter Sellers...........but others might feel differently.
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Marcella
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant Laughs
Reviewed in the United States on May 31, 2019
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This was a gift for a friend, but I'm reading the same book. The author is brilliant and every paragraph is loaded with more and more laughs. Something very special and enjoyable, but you have to have a creative and appreciative mind to enjoy. That's all I'll say, pick it up for yourself.
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el
4.0 out of 5 stars Short, simple, fun
Reviewed in the United States on November 8, 2005
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Pest Control is a light-hearted book which uses a fast pace and off-the-wall humor to make up for any depth problems.

Standard story. Upstart assassin bursts onto the scene, creating mayhem in the world of professional killers. Problem. Upstart assassin can't even fulfill a contract to rid a restaurant of roaches, let alone kill some of the most guarded men in the world.

The story of Bob Dillon's flirtation with contract killers is a page-turner. Not really out of suspense, because you can't imagine that Fitzhugh would subject his characters to anything other than a fairy-tale ending, but out of unabated curiosity. You want to know how in the heck Dillon and his cohorts will survive to breed another strain of hybrid bug-eating bugs. Of course Fitzhugh answers with simple and hilarious solutions which are, towards the end of the book, more and more absurd and predictable.

Overall, I'm slightly embarrassed that I like this book as much as do. Nonetheless, I would recommend it to anyone looking for an easy and humorous read.
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Alain D.
5.0 out of 5 stars Love this Offbeat Author
Reviewed in the United States on January 27, 2020
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This was Bill Fitzhugh's first book I believe. If you like offbeat, some twisted humor or just love Entomology (bugs) you should enjoy this one. Read his others if you do. They evolve in my opinion. It's been a long time since his last book so if you fall in love with his characters and storylines there seems to be a limit to what will be available. He seems like an interesting person too - look him up if you get hooked. I have only read one Carl Hiaasen's book, Razor Girl, so not an authority but Mr. Fitzhugh trumps for me.
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Top reviews from other countries

Ziggy Nixon
2.0 out of 5 stars Only mildly amusing and wholly predictable
Reviewed in France on January 27, 2020
Verified Purchase
This entire book reads as a weak!! rip-off of the assassin sequence from the original 'Pink Panther' movies. Yes, even worse than the Steve Martin versions. All this and a very unsatisfying ending (and viola, we're free, even though we're still using our real names!) was further hampered by abysmally bad editing (no, lowercase L's do not qualify as punctuation; yes, you need to spellcheck the ENTIRE book particularly the i before e rule; no, random words that were apparently supposed to be erased should not be ignored). I may try another Fitzhugh book to see if this was just a first book fluke... but ONLY if its free or on Kindle Unlimited. This noting I paid a dollar (too much) for this copy. Extremely disappointing.
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Michael Watson
5.0 out of 5 stars Beetle mania
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 11, 2009
Verified Purchase
I've no idea how I missed this book when it was first published in 1996 but finally I've read once of the zaniest stories for quite some time - and thoroughly enjoyed it.

It's not a laugh-out-loud book though I did have a few impromptu chuckles as a disillusioned exterminator becomes The Exterminator, the world's number one hitman. But I had a constant feel good factor and a smile on my face throughout. The author tells his tale with a great deal of skill as Bob Dillon travels on his mistaken identity journey, though there are plenty of coincidences without which the content wouldn't work. But ignore this because this is the concept of the story; just enjoy the characters and try not to wonder if the story will have a happy ending.

I'm off to search out 'The Organ Grinders' because if it's half as good as this one, I'm in for another treat.
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J. McGhee
4.0 out of 5 stars A killer of a comedy.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 21, 2010
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A down on his luck pest controller ditches his salary job to chase his dream of an all natural, non chemical, exterminator work. With things not working out as he had hoped, he answers a high paying extermination advert in the newspaper. Leading to curious developments...

To use a cliché, this book is a great beach book (admittedly, not quite the time of year), a great pace to keep those thumbs flicking from page to page. And as other reviews have made a point of, really quite funny. Whilst reading I was left with the distinct impression that it was written with a screen adaptation in mind. Which is not a critisism, just a note of the style.

This novel gave me some out-loud chuckles and a solid story, what more can you ask for in a quick read like this. Give it a try, I'm sure you'll be chuffed with it.
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars A most excellent read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 12, 2022
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A most excellent read, filled with great story, great pacing and so many laugh out loud moments
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june finnigan - writer
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant hilarious tale of a bug exterminator's mistaken identity
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 6, 2015
Verified Purchase
Bob is desperate to get out of New York and to give his family a new life. He puts out a flyer offering his services as an exterminator, which gets misinterpreted when he responds to a newspaper ad for an assassin. Hugely entertaining and fast moving story. A must buy.
June Finnigan - writer
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