No Time for Sex — Tom Kyle

Lovers of humorous books often bewail their sparsity. Well, they can get their teeth into this one. Many humourous books are too short because authors find it difficult to keep humor alive for a full length book. Not Tom Kyle. He knows kooky scientists, he knows government bureaucracy, and he's a storyteller who knows how to weave a 350-page novel suitable for everyone. Kyle mixes two intelligent, but kooky, scientists, lots of government research money, a bunch of ambitious administrators, and what does he get? Answer - belly laughs. When lead kook Sid forgets to go to work, he mathematically proves that calling four hours work anything less than a full day's work violates work rules. The other, Harold gets lost so often that his wife worries each day whether he'll manage to find his way home. The pair delight in getting their equipment from the salvage building. One day a salvage video system shows some, but not all, people with an orange glow. Circumstances convince the pair that people acting deceitfully show up orange on their system. They decide that they have a video deceit detector, an item the CIA would spend mega bucks to get. When administrators want proof that the machine works, Harold and Sid invoke the psychological code of ethics. The code prohibits testing people without their knowledge. They then give a convincing argument that the machine is untestable because a person instructed to tell an untruth is not really acting deceitfully. Administrators love the piles of research money the deceit detector brings in but don't dare get near it. They fear their images might glow bright orange. When Sid and Harold come up with a portable model, the administrators protect themselves by declaring it unsafe for use outside Sid's laboratory. Developing the deceit detector provides plenty of opportunities for Sid and Harold to show that too much intelligence and logic produces uproarious situations. In one case, Harold visits the CIA and is told he must remain within the sight of his escort. So, when nature calls, he feels he must invite the escort to join him the mens room stall. Other episodes involve Sid's home repair fiasco that floods his house in the middle of the night, and Harold's computerized exercise machine that lets him reason with it.

It is a well-told tale full of ridiculously funny episodes that merge seamlessly with the plot to produce a truly funny book.