Lord Vishnu's Love Handles: A Spy Novel (Sort Of) Book

Travis Anderson is teetering on the edge of financial ruin and insanity until a couple of secret agents teach him what it really means to lose his mind. When Travis meets a Hindu holy man in rehab who claims to be the final incarnation of Loerd Vishnu, he is saddled with the responsibility of bettering mankind and saving the world.

Publishers Weekly

Travis Anderson, the protagonist of Clark's intentionally kitschy debut, knows when someone will call on the telephone and he knows that his wife is cheating on him. A dream told him to get into the Web-site building business, and he's now quite comfortable. Following this early-pages setup (in another of the seemingly endless computer-oriented conceits by young male novelists), a bored Travis stumbles on a government Web site that stealthily head hunts psychics. Soon, he begins to help locate missing persons, but a crazed, power-mad co-worker kidnaps his wife and son, setting things in hectic motion. Travis's first-person narration is vivid and witty, and gives the dopey plot, which involves a man who claims to be an incarnation of the god Vishnu, nice nuance. But a tricked-out denouement, with Disney World wired to blow Atlanta Olympics-style, is overblown and finally pushes the book from campy and fun to silly and showy. Agent, Jenny Ben for Trident Media Group. (July) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.