Corrupting Dr. Nice

Blurb

Corrupting Dr. Nice is a science fiction novel by John Kessel, published in 1997. It is a time travel novel modeled on the screwball comedies of the 1930s.
The story follows the rich and klutzy Owen Vannice as he exports a dinosaur from the Cretaceous Period. On the way to the twenty-first century, he is stranded in Jerusalem in 40 AD, where he and Genevieve Faison fall in love. However, he leaves her after discovering that she and her father are con artists. She takes revenge by impersonating a representative of the Committee to Protect the Past, marrying him and then pulling a series of surprises that leave him feeling betrayed. He realizes that he still loves the Genevieve he met in Jerusalem; they both return there and are reconciled. Meanwhile the Zealot Simon is involved in a failed attempt to take over the time travel station in Jerusalem. He stands trial and is acquitted after a courtroom face-off between Abraham Lincoln and Jesus Christ.
Corrupting Dr. Nice was nominated for the 1998 Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.