Declare Based On Books The Manual of Detection
| Title | : | The Manual of Detection |
| Author | : | Jedediah Berry |
| Book Format | : | Hardcover |
| Book Edition | : | First Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 288 pages |
| Published | : | February 19th 2009 by Penguin Press HC, The (first published 2009) |
| Categories | : | Mystery. Fiction. Fantasy. Science Fiction. Steampunk. Crime |
Jedediah Berry
Hardcover | Pages: 288 pages Rating: 3.57 | 4398 Users | 766 Reviews
Ilustration In Favor Of Books The Manual of Detection
In this tightly plotted yet mind-expanding debut novel, an unlikely detective, armed only with 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 toils as a clerk at a huge, imperious detective agency. All he knows about solving mysteries comes from the reports he's filed for the illustrious detective 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 (think The Art of War as told to Damon Runyon). 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 Sivart's greatest cases - including the Three Deaths of Colonel Baker and the Man Who Stole November 12th - were solved incorrectly, Unwin 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 - from Carlos Ruiz Zafón to Jorge Luis Borges, from The Big Sleep to The Yiddish Policeman's Union. But, ultimately, it defies comparison; it is a brilliantly conceived, meticulously realized novel that will change what you think about how you think.
Describe Books As The Manual of Detection
| Original Title: | The Manual of Detection |
| ISBN: | 1594202117 (ISBN13: 9781594202117) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Literary Awards: | New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award Nominee (2010), Hammett Prize (2009), IAFA William L. Crawford Fantasy Award (2010) |
Rating Based On Books The Manual of Detection
Ratings: 3.57 From 4398 Users | 766 ReviewsDiscuss Based On Books The Manual of Detection
Peculiar story, not sure if it's magical realism or just sci fi/mystery, but in any case, it's great fun, the sort of book that sticks in the mind.I went to Booksmith on Haight Street to get my dad a birthday gift. I was drawn to this book and immediately decided to get it for him, and to borrow it after he read it. The author's name sounded familiar, but I saw that it was his first novel, so I kind of shrugged and forgot about it. A few months later, the Bard e-news letter came and in it was an announcement that Jedediah Berry, class of '99, would be giving a reading on campus from his first novel, The Manual of Detection. All of a
So, imagine you trip & fall down Alice's rabbit-hole, tumbling past dreamscapes & spooky carnival sideshows before landing with a thump in a smoky jazz bar filled with pajama-clad characters from Inception & The Maltese Falcon. (Don't fail to notice the shadow of someone from Minority Report lurking in the deepest shadow. See it? Right by the deep-green poster with an all-seeing golden eye....) Feeling disoriented & sore from your fall, you head directly for the bar. Bartender
Jedediah Berry uses the stock images of the detective novel to create a Kafkaesque fable. Set in a quasi-victorian(where the steampunk label comes from)/quasi-30s atmosphere this is an atmospheric, baroque, and endlessly readable fantasy where it could have been a dry run through of genre cleverness. The sum of the parts doesnt quite bring it in for a totally satisfying ending but the ride is terrific. Great debut. On influences, well digested for the most part,though maybe a bit of an obvious
The Manual of Detection reads like the bastard love-child of Dashiell Hammett and Terry Gilliam. First time novelist Jedediah Berry stirs all the tropes of a hard-boiled detective story with surrealistic fantasy elements to create a delightfully eccentric concoction that goes down easy despite the serious message at its core.Anyone familiar with the famous quote attributed to Benjamin Franklin,"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither
The Manual of Detection is a quirky novel that combines mystery with mystery. Even after reading it, Im not sure how it should be characterized. There is certainly detection and mystery. But theres also a strange world with stranger rules and actors. It doesnt try to be like anything else, yet it echoes classic detective novels and film.We have a protagonist who spends most of the book confused over the disappearance of his Detective (he is his assigned clerk who receives and re-writes case
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