Filled with fun, fantasy, firearms and food, some folks might consider this comedic thriller novel for adults to be the bastard love child of Carl Hiaasen and Tom Robbins, midwifed by Hunter S. Thompson in a roadside diner while Molly Ivins provided the play-by-play (catering by Guy Fieri). Well, I'm here to tell you this biting comedy adventure about two lethal livestock inspectors battling Big Agribusiness for the soul of our nation's food supply is the by-golly first in a series. It's the story of a pair of dedicated civil servants doing their damnedest to make sure the American food supply stays safe and bountiful. It's also a story of treachery, corruption, and greed, with jockeys and strippers, and pigs that fly. Before this is all over, things are gonna get a little weird and a little sad. Let me set a place for you here and you can take a look at the menu. First, we've got our heroine of the piece, though she might argue the point. Livestock Inspector Perri Perrault is a legend in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and she is rightly noted for being stubborn, bloodthirsty, and quick on the draw, but always honest as hell. Then we come to find out that her new partner, Gilbert Montoya, has acquired the ability to touch animals and determine whether they are ill and subject to eradication. It's a gift he received from the bite of a venomous centipede, and something he'd rather not talk about. Now wouldn't you know that newly sworn Secretary of Agriculture, Lola Heet, is bound and determined to use them both in her quest to literally own the entire department, at least those parts that might show some profit? And she'll be sure to look damn good while she does it, too. Oh, hey! Almost forgot. In the middle of it all is Field Director Jim Angerer who can't decide whether to fight Heet's corruption in an attempt to save his beloved USDA, or join her in a lucrative, unholy quest to privatize government. I ask you now, what's a good civil servant to do when, in just a few short months, a new administration threatens to reduce a fully-functioning branch of the federal government to a smoldering wreck? ANIMAL MAYHEM-you're eating it.