Bob Dillon is a down-on-his-luck exterminator whose one ambition is to breed a special strain of cockroach-killing assassin bugs and use them to become the best organic pest-control technician in New York. Marcel is a mysterious, powerful Frenchman who occasionally needs people killed. Through a wacky mix-up involving an error in translating the word "exterminator," Marcel hires Bob to kill a prominent foreign diplomat. Luckily, Bob's target is cooperative enough to promptly go and die all by himself. Soon word gets out, and everyone wants to kill, hire or arrest Bob Dillon, and everyone's chasing everyone else through the world's dirtiest, most dangerous city. Here's the surprise: Even with that plot, those characters, and a hero with that name, Pest Control is pretty good. It was obviously never intended to be a great crime/adventure story; it's just a comedic romp in the tradition of Carl Hiassen or Donald Westlake's Dortmunder novels. In other words, it's a good airplane book or lazy-Sunday page-turner—one that won't insult your intelligence, and that's a rare thing. Given a little bit more experience and a more thorough editor, this might have even been a great representative of the genre. Still, check it out, and keep your eye on up-and-coming author Bill Fitzhugh.