Lord Vishnu's Love Handles by Will Clarke

Travis Anderson, button down boiler plate dot com Yuppie Texan, is not having a good week. His company is on the verge of collapse due to faulty bookkeeping and Travis's own alcoholism. His marriage is falling apart. His life is out of control. And then he discovers he's a psychic.
He's contacted by a secret government agency to become a remote viewer in exchange for forgiveness of his tax debt. Once he joins this little cabal, his life only becomes wors,e and he's faced with one threat after another against his life and his family's.

It's difficult to review the book without giving away spoilers, as it relies heavily on suspense and twist moments, almost to a fault. Beyond alcoholism and a seemingly stagnant upper middle class life, we don't learn much about Travis or any of the companions he makes along the way. It's all motion, point A to B to C in a way that's by no means formulaic, but somehow takes some of the wallop out of the story. Little time is spent on Travis developing his gifts. Too much time is spent on Rube Goldbergian double-crosses and convenient plot twists to move the story forward. While the ending definitely has its share of humorous scenes, the means to get there don't fully justify it. Everything feels like a thumbnail sketch and takes what could have been an amazingly great premise and turns it into merely a fun read. (strange criticism, I know).

Will Clarke is just getting started as an author, and I have no doubt that he will tell many fantastic tales in the years to come. This was a mere stumble out of the gates: entertaining to watch, but in the end, slightly disappointing.