Gordon Trask, a little person from rural Oklahoma, has just made $500 providing an evening of dwarf-tossing entertainment to the redneck residents of a local road house. Unfortunately for him, he's attacked and killed by predatory badgers on the way home.
The local chapter of the Little Persons Association, led by James Bolivar, attempts to persuade county animal control to help deal with the situation, but find them... strangely uninterested. Murphy Jones, who has a big chip on his very small shoulder, seeks a more aggressive approach. This in turn leads to a confrontation with not only the predatory badgers, but the mysterious foe behind their attacks.
The book contains examples of:
- Acceptable Targets: Averted. Only the villains use the word "midget," which is considered by many little people to be a slur.
- Animal Wrongs Group: The Coalition for Radical Animal Protection (CRAP).
- Captain Ersatz: CRAP for PETA and other more extreme animal-rights and environmental groups.
- Chained to a Bed: How Murphy keeps Jane from interfering with his rescue of the kidnapped James.
- Christianity is Catholic: The only overtly-religious character is James, a devout Catholic who by the end of the story is exploring becoming a monk.
- Decoy Protagonist: James is the POV character for the early part of the book, but Murphy takes a much more active role toward the end.
- Depraved Dwarf: Murphy is a mild version, given how his more extreme actions are only done to rescue a kidnapped friend.
- Downfall by Sex: Jane tries to Honey Trap Murphy, only to end up Chained to a Bed. She has to chew off her own foot to escape, attempts to kill Murphy, loses her Modesty Bedsheet in the process, ends up getting stuffed into the trunk of car completely naked, and then gets bounced around as the car is driven recklessly. At this point one wonders how she's still alive.
- Femme Fatale Spy: Jane.
- Granola Girl: Jane, as she's much more tolerant of violence and much more manipulative than a typical GG.
- Hero Insurance: Jane could make a reckless endangerment and/or false imprisonment claim against Murphy, although given how she's up to her neck in CRAP's own crimes it was probably wiser to get out of town. Let's hope Oklahoma's Good Samaritan, Stand Your Ground, and citizen's arrest laws cover everything else.
- Honey Trap: Both Murphy and Jane intend this for the other.
- Lampshade Hanging: Per the post about Hero Insurance, Stand Your Ground laws are explicitly invoked when Murphy holds CRAP terrorists at gunpoint.
- Little People Are Surreal: Literally the whole plot.
- Next Thing They Knew: Murphy and Jane go very quickly from meeting for the first time to having sex. Lampshaded by the fact they both intend to Honey Trap the other.
- The Schlub Pub Seduction Deduction: Averted and played straight. The attractive Jane wants to find out how much Murphy, a little person with a big temper knows about how the Coalition for Radical Animal Protection had kidnapped James, but Murphy also happens to look a lot like another terrorist hinted to be her boyfriend.
- Sequel Hook: Jane escapes at the end of the book.
- Strawman Political: CRAP and animal rights groups
- The Anti-Nihilist: Unlike the very religious James, Murphy doesn't believe in God and views himself as ultimately responsible for both his successes and failures.
- The Unfettered: When James is kidnapped by CRAP, Murphy will do anything — or anyone — to rescue him.
- Western Terrorists: The Coalition for Radical Animal Protection (CRAP).
