Human Resources

by Bill Fitzhugh

Jake Trapper isn’t your average organ acquisition specialist. He’s the best in L.A. But Jake has a soft spot for underdogs and his current case is Angel, a young girl from a broken home. She needs a kidney. So Jake makes a deal with a broker and gets seduced into the kidney business. When a potential organ donor is killed, Jake meets LAPD Homicide Detective Megan Densmore who enlists Jake to help with the investigation. Enter Special Agent Fuller, a Fed looking into the black market angle. He’s an oddball with an architecture fetish and an endless supply of strange tales to tell. As more bodies surface, Special Agent Fuller turns a suspicious eye toward Jake and the noose tightens, threatening to reveal Jake’s dirty little secret. Human Resources is a darkly comic thriller with heart, and lungs, and kidneys…and a botched monkey kidnapping.

Genres: Fiction

251 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 8, 2017

About the author

Bill Fitzhugh worked at several FM rock radio stations in the 1970s and 1980s. Born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi, he prefers The Band, Little Feat, and Van Morrison to Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Iron Butterfly. The author of numerous screenplays and five comic novels, he lives in Los Angeles with his wife and his record collection.

Reviews

[Skip · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have read most of Fitzhugh's books, and I was disappointed in this one, which appears to have been self-published. Perhaps this was a bit too zany for me (and his publisher.) Jake Trapper works for an organization helping with legal organ transplants and is dragged into an investigation about illegal ones. Trapper's desire to help a teenage girl with a addict mother to continue dialysis and find a kidney donor is admirable. But, Trapper's relationship with a local bombshell detective, his eluding the Feds and decision to bend ethics to help the girl were a stretch.

P.S. His other books are better.

[Bob Reiss · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another Madcapped Romp

Fitzhugh again proves his skills by deliverying a madcapped romp full of likeable characters which pushes the boundaries of the absurd without falling off the edge. At times it felt a bit samesy, like he has told this tale before but even if it comes off formulaic at least the formula is one unique to him. Human Resources is highly readable and entertaining while giving equal treatment to an intriguing issue.

[Monique · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fitzhugh is the author of what I think is the single funniest book I've ever read, Heart Seizure. In Human Resources his humor is again spot on. A smoking hot "Dame" detective, a rogue organ procurement specialist, a Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) agent on the hunt for an illegal organ transplant ring who holds a grudge against the FBI, it's got it all.

[D.J. Adamson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The subject of his book—organ trafficking—is as intriguing as his character Jake Trapper. Trapper is a good guy. He’s a harvester working for the Southern California Company, Organ Procurement Network. And as a good guy—he knows that some times bad needs to happen to make something good.
Funny and Thrilling all in one book.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gets 5 stars because at one point I was laughing so much my eyes teared up and I could see. I read the same line again after wiping my eye and laughed so hard I went through the same process again. The humor will now appeal to everyone, but it was as good as the other books of his I've read.

[Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

More human organ transplant hijinks. Too bad I forgot I already read this, but enjoyed a re-read.

[Caleb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hysterically funny. Very dark but sort of feel-good. This is the second in his Transplant Tetralogy, I will continue buy and read the others.

[Felicia A Sullivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yayyyyyyy! Another editing project is now a published book!

[Dave Curtis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started reading this yesterday and finished it today. Again, Bill Fitzhugh did not disappoint. What do kidneys, for-profit prisons, Guatamalan razor worms and cops have in common? Well, in this case, it's suspense and a lot of fun. Among the things I find most impressive about Bill Fitzhugh's work is the amount of research that goes into his books. This was both entertaining and educational.

[Mary Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very entertaining!!
There are several books in this same vein, this is my third. The writing is whip,smart sarcastic and funny. Did I mention it’s about the medical process of organ donation? Think this can’t be funny? It is! The characters pop, and story lines wild and believable. Going to get another one soon!

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jake Trapper is a harvester working for the Southern California Company, Organ Procurement Network. He spends his free time visiting patients who are waiting for a kidney and undergoing dialysis. Jake makes friends with a patient—teenage Goth queen, Angel, who is indignant that life has dealt her a bum hand. Having met Angel’s mother, Nikki, an adult entertainer, Jake realizes that he might be the only answer to Angel’s problems, especially when the girl’s chances take a turn for the worse. Unfortunately, this ‘turn’ involves dipping into the highly illegal procurement of black market organs.
Striking a deal with a broker, Jake works out a referral plan to get rich patients in touch with an off-the-waiting-list kidney in return for a special deal for Angel. Unbeknownst to Jake, a Fed by the name of Special Agent Fuller has been tracking the black market angle after a couple of donor hearts are stolen en-route to patients. Along with bombshell, LAPD Homicide Detective Megan Densmore, the duo is watching and following Trapper, as he looks to be a likely suspect in the plot to acquire high-end organs.
Once Densmore strikes up an after-hours relationship with Trapper she helps him disguise the real reason he’s working the black market angle and he volunteers to go undercover to help break the ring of heart thieves.
Along with a dimwitted tattoo artist, a botched kidnapping, a Hollywood mogul and his pet spider monkey, and a failed physician with a dark side, Fitzhugh keeps us thoroughly entertained in this black comedy—the third in the Transplant Trilogy series.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very funny yet thought-provoking crime-caper novel dealing with the black market human organ trade. The characters are likeable and the plot is entertaining. Well worth your time and $$.