NEW YORK — Among the most recent invaders of the United States to be exterminated that I learned about is the red lionfish. Before that, the Asian carp got all the attention. About the time the carp scare was quieting down the yellow jacket — yes, the wasp — came forward as a heinous invader to be destroyed.

I thought of these animals when I read T. Coraghessan Boyle's "When the Killing's Done." The novel fictionalizes the consequences of the National Park Service (NPS) decision to exterminate two invasive species on the Channel Islands of California: the black rats and feral pigs.

Actually, the lionfish as an invasive species to be destroyed may not be that new a topic. I first read about it in The Wall Street Journal ("The Lionfish Creates an Uproar, Bringing Out the Hunters," Nov. 15). I see now that NPR had talked about the fish as a marine menace a year earlier, and lionfish hunting "derbies" had started in 2008.