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| ‘I was impressed, besotted, and transported by The Manual of Detection. Such a great book!’
Karen Joy Fowler, author of The Jane Austen Book C
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In this tightly plotted yet mind-expanding debut novel, an unlikely detective, armed with only an umbrella and a singular handbook, must untangle a string of crimes committed in and through people’s dreams.
In an unnamed city always slick with rain, Charles Unwin is a humble file clerk working for a huge and imperious detective agency, and all he knows about solving mysteries comes from filing reports for the illustrious investigator Travis Sivart. When Sivart goes missing, and his supervisor turns up murdered, Unwin is suddenly promoted to detective, a rank for which he lacks both the skills and the stomach. His only guidance comes from his new assistant, who would be perfect if she weren't so sleepy, and from the pithy yet profound MANUAL OF DETECTION.
Unwin mounts his search for Sivart, but is soon framed for murder, pursued by goons and gunmen, and confounded by the infamous femme fatale Cleo Greenwood. Meanwhile, strange and troubling questions proliferate: why does the mummy at the Municipal Museum have modern-day dental work? Where have all the city’s alarm clocks gone? Why is Unwin’s copy of the Manual missing Chapter 18? When he discovers that the greatest of Sivart’s cases – including ‘The Three Deaths of Colonel Baker’ and ‘The Man who Stole the Twelfth of November’ – were never solved correctly, he must enter the dreams of a murdered man and face a criminal mastermind bent on total control of a slumbering city.
THE MANUAL OF DETECTION will draw comparison to every work of imaginative fiction that ever blew a reader’s mind. But, ultimately, it defies comparison; it is a brilliantly conceived, meticulously realised novel that will change what you think about how you think.
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| ‘Inventive, atmospheric, and fiendishly delightful. If you’ve ever fallen under the spell of Borges, Ray Bradbury, or Angela Carter, I urge you to acquire your own copy of the Manual of Detection. Jedediah Berry’s debut novel is a rare, strange thing.’
Kelly Link, author of Magic for Beginners
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| ‘Richly imagined, genre-defying work…The Manual of Detection establishes Berry as a wholly original, brilliant new voice in fiction.’
Sabina Murray, author of The Caprices and A Carniv
More
Information
William Heinemann • General & literary fiction • Previous
ISBN: 0434019453
Publication date: 05/03/2009 • 288 pages • Demy Octavo • EAN: 9780434019458 |
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