Powerful novel about claims of Jesus Christ to be released 

Though Dennis Harris' first novel -- Liar, Lunatic or Lord -- is a chilling tale that could have been ripped from today's headlines, it defies a genre classification.

The Fredericksburg, Texas, businessman/evangelist uses a blending of the New Testament Gospels in conjunction with a contemporary story that is insightful and suspenseful, weaving within a context of both reality and doubt the perception each of the novel's characters have about religion and Jesus Christ.

Georgia Risenhoover, the company's CEO/publisher, said that in Harris' novel a widow discovers a series of letters written to her late husband that include a blending of the New Testament Gospels and shares them with a friend, who begins sharing them with others.

"The ripple impact on all the characters in the book is fantastic," Risenhoover said. "The letters become miraculously intrusive, affecting a number of people in a pseudo-sophisticated metropolitan area, one of whom is a tormented, drug-addicted young man who has planned the murders of his entire family."

Risenhoover said Harris, a Baptist, has combined strong characterization with an equally strong plot.

"When you read the book, you'll probably recognize someone with an attitude or the traits of one or more of the charmers," she said. "Dennis has taken both socially prominent and blue-collar families and placed them in a story that happens all too often. And through his characters he provides seldom-discussed insight into the often-twisted perceptions many people have about religion, churches and ministers." 

The publisher said Liar, Lunatic or Lord is an "emotional read," running the gamut from laughter to tears.

"This is a unique, highly unusual novel," Risenhoover said, "but people who know Dennis Harris would expect nothing less. He's a unique individual who has spent a lifetime proving others wrong about his ability to do the seemingly impossible."

Harris, who is in the oil and gas business, is also an entrepreneur, a rancher who raises cattle and horses, the author of 14 children's books, the founder of Lifeline World Mission, a seminar speaker on the subject of God's grace and an evangelist. His ministry is worldwide, with specific missions to the Gaza Strip, Romania and the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. Though Harris is combating life-threatening cancer, the publisher said she expects to publish another of his novels in 2001 ---this one built around the subject of grace.

"Over the next few years you're going to hear a lot about Dennis Harris, the author," she said. "His cancer is in remission, and he's a battler. And he has a lot of important things to say through both fiction and nonfiction books."

Additional information about Harris can be obtained by e-mailing him at dharris@fbg.net, or going to the Lifeline World Mission web site, at www.lifelineworldmission.org.