 PEST CONTROL - Reviews |
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"...[a] hilarious comic thriller...Fitzhugh is exceedingly efficient in creating memorable and recognizable characters in a minimum of space [with] identifiable and effecting realism. With a smirking wit and clipped descriptive flair, Fitzhugh tells the reader everything and nothing at the same time... Pest Control reads something like Naked Lunch written by a sober William Borroughs...[It]is filled with delicious and well-researched entomological trivia...a clever and satisfying debut...offbeat, engaging, and very funny reading, it is wholly successful." "[Pest Control is]...hilarious [and] wonderful...Fitzhugh seems maddeningly unaware of the difficulty of writing a laugh-out-loud book...[he] is a funny man and Pest Control is a funny book." "...stingingly funny...a comedy of errors that ensues after...Bob Dillon is mistaken for a top hit man." -- People Magazine "Pest Control is an eccentrically comic take on the high-tech thriller...[it is a] strange and funny...curiously appealing little novel of intrigue." "A new fave . . . in the murder-mystery category, is Bill Fitzhugh, a seriously funny guy . . . published by Avon. Pest Control. . . is a droll story about an environmentally correct bug exterminator who gets mistaken for a professional hit man. His new one, The Organ Grinders, is hilarious, but it can also make you gasp with horror; it's based on the obvious premise that rich Americans in need of various body parts will be buying them from poor people in foreign countries. The environmental stuff is terrific, and the humor is completely off-the-wall. "There aren't many thrillers with protagonists as likable as Bob [Dillon] who lurches along gleefully unaware of the mix-up that has embroiled him in international intrigue...a colorful supporting cast and a steady supply of absurd situations...this is one roach motel you'll gladly check into." "Fitzhugh's novel is funny from the outset. [Pest Control has]fast moving prose and a quick wit...a very funny and interesting book...give it to someone who needs a good laugh." "A sweetly comic thriller...consistently sunny and good-humored." "This debut novel...hinges on a delightfully buggy idea that takes full comic advantage of New York City." "Pest Control is uber-contemporary, a hilarious, running-in-circles blend of droll farce and warped humor." "...a funny, outrageous plot...Fitzhugh manages to lampoon international espionage, the city of New York, and the CIA. Pest Control is hilarious." #14 on the San Francisco Chronicle's Best Seller list week of April 13, 1997! Made the list of the Top 50 mysteries for 1997 at Amazon.com!
"Fitzhugh does for New York what Carl Hiaasen did for Miami. Pest Control is one of the funniest, most off-beat thrillers in years...an action-packed plot stuffed with streetwise lines and larger-than-life characters." "A brilliantly assured, funny and gripping first novel." "Fitzhugh's fast and funny thriller is a real joy to read, with more twists and turns than you can count." "I cannot recommend this highly enough...it is such fun...real laugh-out-loud stuff...pure farce, a great comedy of errors that mounts at an alarming rate...a sort of Colin Bateman/Carl Hiaasen mix. I loved it." [Also 5 stars and "Pick of the Week"] "...an hilarious thriller jam-packed with banana peel situations and slapstick comedy... if you fancy a laugh, read this book; equally if you are a fan of thrillers or romance, or indeed of horror, read this book. If none of the above read it anyway. Brilliant, funny, satirical, and above all enjoyable from the first page to the last. Sheer class." "A frenzied New York farce...[Fitzhugh] piles on the gags...thick and fast. An offbeat and funny thriller, in a rather hyper-active kind of way." "...a tongue-in-cheek thriller...based on a beguilingly simple premise...[it] succeeds in the difficult task of mixing in the humour while keeping the plot zipping along...Fitzhugh carries it off with such panache and wit that you can't help liking it." "The story is told with a lovely dead-pan seriousness and a carefully calculated cheerful artlessness that makes the whole affair a complete success." "[Pest Control] does for beetles what Jurassic Park did for dinosaurs...within its fascinating pages is a cast of creepy crawlies whose murderous methods put human predators to shame. Perfect holiday reading." "A great plot and a compulsive read...A rare novel -- one that successfully combines humor and excitement." "A hilarious and original thriller." My two favorite bad reviews (from reader reviews posted on Amazon.com) #1 Bob from Marietta, Georgia, May 8, 1998 Slighty More Funny Than An Entomology Textbook This author really tries so hard to be funny; you can just feel him straining for each laugh. He's got a modicum of talent, but to compare him with Westlake or Hiaasen would be a real joke if it weren't a bit sacriligious. One of the problems of the book is that the author can't resist providing us with a lot of facts about something we generally have no interest in: bugs. He's like the expert on Proust who bores us to death at a cocktail party by rambling on and on about the great author. And...can you really get into a story where the protagonist's method for killing cockroaches is to stick them in his pants pocket and then smashing (sic) them with the palm of his hand? Yes, I am squeamish; I live in Georgia where I have to put up with enough unpleasant insects. I also found that I had no interest in the main character. I really wouldn't have cared if the assassins chasing him would have been victorious, especially if they could have did (sic) him in around 100 pages into the book. Then the book would have ended sooner, and I would have saved a lot of time. Will I read his next book? I don't think so. #2 A reader from pacific Palisades, Calif. , March 11, 1998 Cheap jokes -- I bought this book because of the terrific cover, and about midway through the book realized the cover no longer amused me. Poor Bill Fitzhugh has to go so far to be funny, you almost feel sorry for him. It reminds me of the desperate writers and actors on a second rate sitcom, punching away trying to be funny to no avail. This guy goes off on tangents pages and pages long trying to make some silly joke about "kids today." When he wants to make a joke about "Beavis and Butthead" he takes half a paragraph telling us who they are. Bud, if you gotta explain the joke, it ain't worth it. When I got to the part where a lowlife New York landlord was characterized simply by his penchant for squeezing the word "yo" into every single line of dialogue, I finally said "enough with this," tossed the book in the round file and went and found something by Donald Westlake (try "Smoke" if you want to read a book that's really funny). There isn't a character that rings true, there isn't a moment that doesn't feel false and there isn't a single good joke that rises from the situation. ©1999-2001, Reduviidae, Inc. - All rights reserved |
