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Summary: Bob Dillon A.K.A. the "EXTERMINATOR"
Review: This novel by Bill Fitzhugh is a very fast read. It is a story of a man by the name of Bob Dillon (often confused with Dylan). This run of the mill pest control worker has a wife, Mary, and a 10-year-old daughter, Katy. Unhappy with his job, he quits his job with the "Bug-Off" corporation and decides to pursue his life long dream of creating a natural form of pest control. This decision couldn't have come at a worse time. The family is low on funds, behind on rent and bills, and has little more than Lucky Charms as sustenance. His wife, disgusted with their financial situation decides to leave and take Katy to her mother's house. Given the situation, Bob does what any man would do... he gets liquored up with a buddy of his.While under the influence, Bob runs across an ad in the paper saying, "exterminator wanted". Being out of a job, he thought freelance might help until his natural methods are perfected. Little did Bob know, but this job would need a rifle, not a spray wand. After the coincidental death of the target he was hired for, half the world wants him dead. With 10 million dollars on his head, and bullets whizzing past him, Bob is struggling to pay his rent and stay alive. Fitzhugh writes a fast paced novel that keeps the reader in limbo of hysterics and even more hysterics. It's an excellent read, but it does have some flaws because nothing is perfect. He mentions different sorts of insects throughout the book and then goes into extreme detail about the species. Not being a person that is too fond of the little buggers, I usually just skipped these portions, as they would have made me yawn. Looking past this flaw, I can't find anything else I can complain about. All in all a great story with some very likeable characters and a plot that makes the reader not want to put the book down.
Rating: 
Summary: Terrific!
Review: This is a fun book, well written and enjoyable. The first by an author who is improving and gaining in many ways, it is a smart addition to any collection.
Rating: 
Summary: A disappointment
Review: Led on by the blurbs on the cover, I expected to be helpless with laughter reading this book, but I was bitterly disappointed -- I barely cracked a smile. The author strains mightily to write a "caper" thriller, a la Donald Westlake or Carl Hiaasen, and this straining is all too apparent. The cover art, for me, was the most amusing part of the book. I see that Warner Brothers has bought the movie rights -- with the right cast Pest Control might make a mildly amusing movie.
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Summary: Unique Zany Classic CaperFull Of Bugs,Assasins,MarxBrosHumor
Review: Probably the most hilarious, laugh out loud book I've ever read, our obsessed,lovelorn, family man,Insect Loving hero,aka Bob Dillon (not the troubadour) finds himself in more tough spots than he bargained for! With his basement bugorium, he sets to answer the eternal question , "How to rid the Big Apple of the cockroach?!" Unfortunately, in his quest for fortune and fame, he answers a NY Times Help Wanted AD, and gets in way over his head with some world class cutthroats. The author throws in all the entomology you'll ever want to learn, and more crazy antics than the Marx Brothers and the 3 Stooges combined, along with a nifty tour of some of the Big Apple's seamier streets...A terrific roller coaster with a few scary jaunts thrown in too, as our hero, termite/roach inspector battles some of the world's creepiest hitmen, and even the CIA makes an appearance...My only gripe(s) is there is a bit too much anti-NYC lore, and some of the NYC characters are totally charmless, especially the cynical, manipulative landlord across the street.Still a great read, and you may laugh out loud at least once per page, as I'm sure I did!
Rating: 
Summary: Advertisement for a movie, not a book
Review: I thought this book was very lazy. The author never bothers to describe a character when an easy pop-culture reference will do ("He looks like Danny DeVito", etc...). The prose is very passive, especially in the early sections (an author should NOT use words like "generally" and "apparently" when describing things). The action is not organized around any particular point. Eccentric villains (a cross-dressing dwarf, a Cowboy, a "Nigerian") are introduced simply so they can be killed. Fitzhugh often describes the characters' motivation instead of doing the heavy lifting and actually writing scenes that illustrate that motivation. I know the book is intended to be humorous, but it falls flat on so many levels, and has several plot holes (c'mon, is CNN REALLY going to announce a South American drug lord's call for revenge on TV?). Numerous references to songs and movies show that Fitzhugh would rather be directing movies than writing novels, a problem that afflicts many writers these days.
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Summary: Why haven't they made this into a movie yet?
Review:
I found Fitzhugh's Organ Grinders to be pretty average, but this book is much better. The plot is simple, comical, fastmoving and provides an excellent framework for Fitzhugh's cast of zany characters, and his witty writing style. Too often in pop novels the author tries, in heavy-handed fashion, to infuse some sort of scientific or historical backdrop into the novel. Here, Fitzhugh does an excellent job of blending fiction with entymology. Furthermore, One wonders why Eddie Murphy and Matthew Perry are victimizing us with dreck like Pluto Nash and Serving Sara when there are zany stories like this that beg to be made into movies (Although while reading I cast Bruce Willis as the zany, desperate exterminator and Joan Allen as his sensible, longsuffering wife) Anyway, if you like comical situations and funny writing this book will be well worth it!
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Summary: Hilarious
Review: Hilarious! Witty! Funny! even if you are not an entomologist.
Rating:
Summary: Clever
Review: ... its one of the most funniest books I've ever read... Very well written with extremely clever word usements...
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining mostly
Review: I bought Pest Control because Fitzhugh's writing is supposedly comparable to that of Christopher Moore. Not close! Bob Dillon is a down-on-his luck exterminator. He quits his job with a company that uses chemicals to kill pests in order to pursue his dream of establishing an all-natural pest control method using hybrid assassin insects that prey on cockroaches and the like. Things turn very interesting when he answers a New York Times classified ad seeking an "exterminator," little knowing that the "pest" the advertiser wants dead is a human one. Circumstances are such that Bob unwittingly becomes a world-renowned hit-man with a ten million dollar contract on his own life. As a result, Bob finds himself the target of all of the world's top-rated hit men, in addition to a jaded CIA agent and others. Pest Control is humorous, but not hilarious. It is well written and reads very quickly, despite too many lengthy scientific descriptions of and references to various creepy crawly critters. A pleasant diversion for a summer read. Leaving content aside for a moment, my paperback copy (bought from Amazon) fell apart as I read it, with the cover coming competely off as if it had barely been glued on. It's not much fun to read a book clutching clusters of pages to keep them from falling onto the beach. Who's responsible for quality control?
Rating:
Summary: I laughed...
Review: This story is one of senses. Suspend doubt for a second people! Immerse yourself in the characters and senses. You can smell the characters' perspiration but at the same time you can see the characters as truly cartoony and this leads to wondrous situations. It is easy to see why Warner Bros. bought up this as a screen play. The characters are so just that, characters that they create surreal comedic situations rarely seen in Gen X writers. I read this book on my lunch hour over and over. Once I laughed so hard I had to wipe away tears, bookmark the page, wait minutes until my laughing lapsed. Then I read one more sentence, ONE MORE SENTENCE! and burst into tears once again. If you are planning on reading this book do. Just sit back, relax and make sure you aren't drinking any hot beverages when you read it.
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