Pest Control

Bill Fitzhugh's 1996 novel "Pest Control" is so much fun it's a wonder more people haven't read it -- or even heard about it. But then I always wondered why Donald E. Westlake's comic caper novels were not major bestsellers. Pest Control may not be quite as funny or as good as Westlake's best work, but it's close.

The story tells about a professional pest exterminator named Bob Dillon whose great idea is to breed a new bug that will kill other bugs, as if property owners will pay good money to try to get rid of their roaches and termites by inviting even bigger, nastier insects into their homes and businesses. Through a series of events that almost seem plausible as Fitzhugh tells the story, Bob gets a reputation as another kind of show more professional exterminator, a hitman. Pretty soon most of the other top assassins in the world are coming to New York City to kill him, both to eliminate one of their competitors and to collect a large bounty placed on his head by a South American dictator.

One of these assassins is Klaus, a man who entered the business to make the world a better place. He kills only people who deserve to be killed, and when he realizes Bob is nothing more than the harmless exterminator he claims to be, he comes to the rescue. Klaus doesn't save the day by himself, however. With his knowledge of New York and bugs, Bob proves very resourceful against the armed killers, too.

Decades ago someone like Don Knotts or Tim Conway would have been chosen to play Bob Dillon in a film version of Pest Control. That casting would not have been quite right, however. Bob isn't so much a klutzy, mindless comic character as he is an ordinary Joe with a one-track mind. He thinks only about bugs. In a flashback we get to read a love letter he wrote to his sweetheart back in college. The letter is filled with bug metaphors. Mary married him anyway, and in the story she leaves him when their rent is overdue and Bob refuses to rely on dependable, if dangerous, chemicals to do his job.

Mary returns to Bob by the end of the novel. She may be the story's true hero. show less

Bob Dillon is an environmentally conscious pest (ie insect) controller. He is fired from his job at a pest control company after he rebels against tripling the dose of parathion on a cockroach job and jams the wand of his sprayer up his supervisor's nose. Then he decides to finally put his entomology degree to use. Bob has spent years developing the perfect 'assassin' insect by crossbreeding 8 species of Assassin bugs. With the perfect crossbreeding, Bob is convinced that he'll develop the ideal, natural (non-chemical) insect killer.

There are several holes in Bob's plan and these become obvious as the plot develops. Bob's long-suffering wife, Mary is supportive, but, when there's no money coming in and they’re about to be evicted, show more her patience runs out. Canvassing for employment, "Exterminator Bob" is mistakenly identified as a hit man, and soon Bob is up to his neck in the top ten assassins (the human variety), Columbian drug lords, CIA agents, and big money kill-contracts.

Eventually, a Bolivian drug lord promises to pay $10 million to anyone who can take Bob out. This brings the world's top ten assassins out to give it a shot (so to speak) - including the burned out gambler, Klaus; the international beauty, Chantelle (whose trademark is chocolate stuffed in the mouth of her victims); and Reginald, a particularly vicious and devious transvestite dwarf...

Author Bill Fitzhugh keeps the action rolling with even, light-handed talent. This could be an incredibly dark tale, but instead it's very funny. Part of the humour is found in Bob's naivete. He's so distracted by his bug breeding program, and his financial and domestic problems, that he fails to see the bullets whizzing by his head. While the characters of the assassins are something you'd expect to see from a James Bond film, Fitzhugh still manages to make them highly original, and the tension continues until the last page.

In PEST CONTROL, Bill Fitzhugh has created a clever premise supported by a sublimely absurd set of circumstances and coincidences. Dillon and his family are enormously engaging. And the arcane details of killer bug hybridization - accurate or not, I can't say - make for interesting contemplation. I was particularly amused by the mental contortions by which the CIA concluded that Bob was an assassin extraordinaire, a conclusion ironically realized when our hero manipulates both the inherent dangers of New York City and his own knowledge of the class Insecta to eliminate those hunting him.

Being a licensed curmudgeon, PEST CONTROL didn't make me laugh out loud, but it did bring a grin to my poker face on several occasions. That, by itself, is a noteworthy accomplishment. I’ll certainly be looking for more of this author’s work.

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I bought this book because of its size. It's a hardback book that is 7.25 inches high. It's a perfect size for a book. Who in the world decreed that books need to be 9 inches and 9.5 inches high??? Who do they think is holding up those big hummers while I lie in bed and read? I have no plans to start pumping iron so I can read in bed. Avon Books has the right idea with this nice, short book. Now to what's inside this nicely sized book.... It looks like this might be Bill Fitzhugh's first novel and I hope he's madly working on number 2. Bob Dillon is a pest control guy - a pest control guy who is not only down on his luck but also high on his dreams of a natural way to kill bugs. He's not only a bug expert, he's a bug lover. But, he show more needs money. So he answers an ad for an exterminator. Of course, the writer of the ad wants to exterminate a person and not a bug. The premise of this whole thing could be too silly for words but not for Fitzhugh. It's a wonderful story with some great laughs and marvelous twists and turns. show less

The general plot of this book was rather unbelievable, but it certainly kept me turning the pages, especially for all the subtle humor that Fitzhugh includes in his writing. I came to adore the characters, especially Bob, the hapless pest controller looking for the ultimate in all-natural pest control, and Klaus, a reluctant hired assassin. I kept thinking that this would make a great movie. This is the first book in a series.

This was so corny, with so many bad puns!

This is definitely not something I'd normally read, but the story was such a farce, it felt like an old Marx Brothers movie. The story is pretty simple: down-on-his-luck "bug guy" Bob is mistaken for an assassin by several agencies and cartels.

The writing is pretty good, and I'll definitely be reading the sequel.

adult fiction. I remember reading this a long time ago, and liking it enough to seek out more of Fitzhugh's books, but don't remember a whole lot otherwise. Judging from the other reviews, all the "bug talk" (learning about cockroaches and the science of the bug extermination business) can be a turnoff, but if you're game, check this one out.

Really enjoyed reading this delightfully absurd novel. Bob Dillon is just an exterminator that gets mistaken for the newest assassin in the world, called The Exterminator. Now he has to try to stay alive by dodging the top 10 hit men (people) in the world., avoiding his landlord who wants his $320, and staying away from the CIA agents that try to convert him to their side. All this while starting his own pest control business and promising his wife that he will somehow get the rent money.

Amusing case of mistaken identity.