When a novel opens with the scene of an indoor pool filled with lobsters and enough ice to keep them alive, and the environmental attorney who rigged this stunt in a mayor's mansion makes his getaway in a stretch limo accompanied by a sheep-dog puppet, it's hard not to think, here we go again: another spoof on enviro-terrorists to make the reader cringe at their outrageous acts while feeling guilty about the dire straits our Earth is in.

But "The Marriage of True Minds" has no dead bodies (if you don't count a euthanized dog), no mystery to solve; it's not so much a spoof as it is a love story, an unconventional love story at that. Instead, through mentally ill protagonists, comic book heroes and plenty of good lines, playwright Stephen Evans delivers in his debut novel an oddly serious message that has little to do with saving the world and is more of a reminder to save ourselves.