The Organ Grinders

Bill Fitzhugh's widely acclaimed novel Pest Control (among a torrent of nationwide praise, People called it "stingingly funny") signaled the arrival of a unique young conjuror of comic suspense. Now Fitzhugh trains his satirical eye on the merging of medical science and big business -- with hilarious and outrageous results.

Paul Symon is an environmentalist who's out to make the world a better place, but he faces too much disjointed information, public apathy and self-serving talk. Not to mention greedy despoiler Jerry Landis, venture capitalist dying of a rare disease that accelerates the aging process. Landis cares only about making more money and finding a way to arrest his medical condition. That brings him and his fortune to the wild frontier of biotechnology, where his people are illegally experimenting with cross-species organ transplantation in California while breeding genetically altered primates at a secret site in the piney woods of south central Mississippi. There's also an eco-terrorist on the loose, bent on teaching hard lessons to people who think the Earth and its creatures are theirs to destroy. These forces collide in an explosion of laughter and wonder that Bill Fitzhugh's growing league of admirers is coming to recognize as his very own.