Manual of Detection

By: Jedediah Berry

Narrated by: Pete Larkin

An unlikely detective, armed only with an umbrella and a singular handbook, must solve a string of crimes committed in and through people's dreams.

In an unnamed city slick with rain, Charles Unwin toils as a clerk at an imperious detective agency. His job: writing reports on cases solved by the palindromic Detective Travis Sivart. When Sivart goes missing and his supervisor is murdered, Unwin is promoted to detective, a rank for which he is woefully unprepared. His only guidance comes from his sleepy new assistant and the pithy yet profound Manual of Detection.

Unwin mounts his search for Sivart but soon faces impossible questions: Why does the mummy at the Municipal Museum have modern-day dental work? Where have all the city's alarm clocks gone? Can the man with the blond beard really read his thoughts? Meanwhile, Unwin is framed for murder, pursued by goons, and confounded by a femme fatale. His only choice: to enter the dreams of a murdered man.

©2009 Original material © 2009 Jedediah Berry. Recorded by arrangement with Jedediah Berry and Zachary Shuster Harmsworth. (P)2009 (P) 2009 HighBridge Company.

Critic reviews

"Berry's ambitious debut reverberates with echoes of Kafka and Paul Auster." ( Publishers Weekly)

Did it have to be so twisted?

The plot is convoluted beyond the boundaries of the reasonable. Probably it comes out better if read.

Entertaining world constructed for the story.

Took an interesting turn that I did not expect. Very entertaining and original. Enjoyed the characters and atmosphere.

Made to be an audio book

I have read this book many times but I have always gotten lost in the descriptions. This was a book made to be listened to. A wonderful adventure

Marvelous Novel

What an enjoyable and challenging read. This novel was a delight to listen to, and I hope to hear more from Jedediah Berry. A lot of fun. Just how speculative fiction should be.

Absurd gumshoe fiction of the best kind

If you liked The Naked Lunch, The 13th Floor, Buckaroo Banzai Across the 10th Dimension, The Scribbler, etc then I think this is the book for you! Absurd but so damned consistent. Very very entertaining!