Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Unlikely alliances form in a plot to neutralize an author's greedy former agent. After two armed thugs enter and shoot the fish aquarium in Manhattan's Clownfish Caf, writer Cindy Sella, a Manhattanite from a small town in Kansas, and hit man Karl leave with souvenir clownfish they helped rescue. While Karl and his colleague Candy consider a contract to off the literary agent L. Bass Hess, Candy leafs through Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews, and Karl sets up his clownfish in the converted warehouse he shares with Candy. Although Karl kills people for a living, he's happy to redecorate the apartment to provide a more appropriate environment for his fish--and to join Candy in helping Cindy extricate herself from a baseless lawsuit that Hess, her former agent, has brought against her. Mega-selling author Paul Giverney has his own reasons to rid Manhattan of Hess. To further his elaborate schemes, he calls on, among others, an abbot with a dubious religious vocation, an amiable stoner, the legendary Skunk Ape, Bass' uncle-turned-aunt, Candy, Karl and Karl's fish. As one caper follows another, from Manhattan to Sewickley, Pa., to the Everglades, Cindy loses her importance to the conspirators. Grimes (Fadeaway Girl, 2011, etc.) brings a crazy-quilt sensibility to a romp that ultimately sags a bit under the weight of its own cleverness. Despite its pallid heroine, however, this sendup of the book world, in which hit men apparently have more integrity than publishers, is great fun.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

They're back! Candy and Karl, who represent the gold standard for hit men in Manhattan (introduced in Foul Matter, 2003), return with their scruples they kill only persons they think deserve to die and their burgeoning interest in the publishing industry. But their contract on universally disliked literary agent L. Bass Hess hits a snag. Because Hess is suing a former client, author Cindy Sella, Candy and Karl fear that Sella would be the first person suspected if Hess were murdered. So the pair draws on their contacts from the earlier book, including best-selling author Paul Giverney and publisher Bobby Mackensie, to devise a means of obliterating Hess short of killing him. From the opening pages, when other hit men shoot up an aquarium in the downtown Clownfish Cafe, exotic tropical fish are the key to zany action proposed on the fly. This sequel to Foul Matter is a caper that casts an eye on publishing that is comic, caustic, and relentlessly readable. Yes, it's Grimes lite and probably as much fun for the author as it is for her readers.--Leber, Michele Copyright 2010 Booklist

Publishers Weekly
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This addictive, whimsical follow-up to 2003's Foul Matter from MWA Grand Master Grimes dives into the cesspool that is the New York publishing world. L. Bass Hess, a despicable literary agent, likes to sue his former clients, claiming, after they fire him, that they owed him a commission. Some authors have settled rather than fought, but not Cindy Sella, a kind woman with an interest in tropical fish who's suffering from writer's block. Meanwhile, members of a group led by "mega-bestselling author" Paul Giverney and including two hit men with their own idea of who is worth killing, a publisher, an editor, and a mysterious Malaysian woman named Lena bint Musah, decide to take Hess down. This requires a seance, an alligator, a number of tropical fish, and other esoteric items. The coup de grace alone is worth the price of admission. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.