All Bob Dillon ever wanted was a truck with a big fiberglass bug on the roof. All he had to do was survive half a dozen assassination attempts, pull a $10 million con on a Bolivian drug lord, and then fall off the face of the earth with his family and his new best friend, Klaus.

Six years later, in The Exterminators, they surface in Oregon where they continue Bob’s work creating an all-natural means of pest control. But now, instead of crossbreeding different strains of assassin bugs, they’re using advanced gene sequencers to consolidate the perfect insect-killing traits into one deadly bug. There’s only one problem: with all of this seriously expensive DNA tampering, they’re running low on funds. The venture-capital outfit that wants to invest turns out to be a front for DARPA, the Department of Defense agency charged with research and development of exotic weapons. It seems the US government wants to enlist Bob, Klaus, and the bugs in the war on terror. Oh, and did we mention unlimited funding?

With an offer too good to refuse, they move to Los Angeles and get to work. Things go swimmingly until that Bolivian drug lord discovers he was conned out of his $10 million. Vowing revenge, he offers $20 million to whoever kills Bob and Klaus. Some of the world’s best assassins descend on Hollywood, and before you can say “It’s an honor just to be nominated,” the weirdness level reaches apocalyptic heights. It’s a battle pitting the Far Right against the Far Left with Bob stuck in the middle and subjected to some serious post-9/11 thinking.

Bill Fitzhugh is the award-winning author of eight satiric crime novels. His debut novel, Pest Control, was named one of Amazon’s Top 50 Mysteries in 1997.