Clark's second novel is a delight from start to finish, delivering resoundingly on the promise of his well-received The Many Aspects of Mobile Home Living. The adventure begins when the Rev. Joel King is released from jail after a six-month sentence for the statutory rape of now-18-year-old gold digger Christy Darden. The question of whether Joel is actually guilty of the crime to which he confessed persists, but he keeps his lips sealed as he and parishioner Edmund Brooks drive from Roanoke, Va., to Missoula, Wyo., to be with Joel's recently single sister Sophie and his Alzheimer's-afflicted mother. It turns out the irascible Edmund is into insurance fraud, among other things, and, with Las Vegas attorney Sa'ad X. Sa'ad, is capable of unimaginable deceit and criminal activity. Facing divorce, jobless and desperate, Joel gets wrapped up in their latest scheme and, before he knows it, the Feds, a corrupt probation officer, the state police and a detective are hot on his trail. Clark also throws in issues of spousal abuse, parental responsibility, and justice, to name but a few. Joel perpetually wrestles with issues of faith, but never in a way that is pedantic or overbearing. There is barely a false note in this comic novel of hope and redemption. Minor characters are rich and multilayered, and the dialogue is priceless ("This is some crazy shit, like the Marx Brothers or I Love Lucy when a person misunderstands one teeny fact and everything snowballs and builds on the wrong idea"). All in all, this is one of the year's most entertaining surprises. Fans of Elmore Leonard's meatier novels will not be disappointed. Agent, Regal Literary Inc. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

The theme of small events leading to big consequences is rarely played as well as it is here. For Virginia Baptist minister Joel King, the trouble starts with a little innocent petting with a not-so-innocent teen; this predictably leads to his defrocking and divorce but less predictably to his move to Montana and jobs in a diner and on a trout stream. As one might expect from the author of The Many Aspects of Mobile Home Living, the twists continue as Joel becomes involved with con men, shady lawyers, stolen jewels, Las Vegas casinos, corrupt parole officers, and even the FBI. It's like the Book of Job, except that Clark's novel is often hilarious, and Joel, as he well knows, is at base responsible for his tribulations. He is like a fly caught in a web: the more he struggles, the more entangled he becomes. In the end, though, Joel finds redemption, realizing that without difficulty, there is no progress; that without struggle, he'd still be the blindly accepting platitude dispenser he once was. Despite its substantial length and narrative depth, this book zips by. Highly recommended. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 1/03.] Robert E. Brown, Minoa Lib., NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

At first glance, Joel King is a familiar figure--a holy roller brought low by a sin of the flesh (here, a carnal encounter with a 17-year-old). But in this seriocomic look at faith and ethics, certitude is hard to come by. The Baptist minister pleads guilty, does time, and finds that job opportunities are scarce for sinning saints. Even with a job, the lawsuits he's facing (a huge civil suit and his wife's divorce petition) ensure a hardscrabble future. But when Joel accepts a ride from a con artist, he's introduced to a new moral outlook--and a new line of work. Joel decides to turn grifter, vowing to use the tools of evil to do good. But this is difficult moral terrain for a former sheltered innocent. Clark ( The Many Aspects of Mobile Home Living0 , 2000) does an impressive job of roadbuilding, surveying a twisty plot through a shifting interior landscape. Best of all, because he takes Joel's beliefs seriously, this entertaining novel is moving and real, even though the setup might suggest otherwise. --Keir Graff Copyright 2004 Booklist

Big, boisterous and hugely enjoyable, Clark's second tracks the wild ride of a disgraced preacher across an American heartland pockmarked by scams and rackets. Two lousy kisses. That's all it took, plus some rigged DNA, to end Joel King's marriage and ministry. Joel, a well-liked Baptist in Roanoke, Virginia, had unfortunately exchanged kisses, on church premises, with Christy Darden, the most gorgeous, pampered, sluttish, and conniving 17-year-old in all Virginia (Clark paints her with a wicked glee). The unworldly minister has pled guilty to misdemeanor charges and done six months of jail time, little realizing he was an entrapment victim. He emerges from jail penniless, only to be served with divorce papers and Christy's civil suit for five million, while all he has is a ride to his sister's place in Missoula, Montana. His driver is a businessman, Edmund Brooks, a loyal member of his congregation. En route, Edmund proposes that Joel join him and his partner, a black lawyer in Las Vegas, in a scheme to defraud insurance companies. The deal hinges on "borrowing" high-priced jewelry. Joel, a good and honest man, immediately declines. In Missoula, he joins Sophie, a struggling single parent, and her small son. There, he finds two low-end jobs, but sheer economic necessity drives him to accept Edmund's offer. What follows is a heist that goes wrong, and eventually Joel is confronted by FBI agents. Meanwhile, before their depositions, he is desperately trying to work out a deal with the utterly untrustworthy Christy. All this is as hilarious and exciting as Clark's debut (The Many Aspects of Mobile Home Living, 2000); but in this "grown man's coming-of-age story," the author takes that caper to another level. Joel's spiritual struggle is unremitting in a world where the black and white hats don't divide cleanly: Edmund is a likable rogue, while Joel's probation officer, working his own racket, is total slime. With its impressive sweep and density, Clark's work triumphantly clears the second-novel hurdle. Don't miss it. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.