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Blending urban fantasy with a traditional whodunit, Jedediah Berry takes readers on a dreamlike journey filled with mystery and intrigue in his debut novel, The Manual of Detection. Though primarily a detective story, the book combines elements of noir and steampunk for a surreal reading experience.
The story opens in an unnamed city. Though the time period remains unstated, the setting and prose evoke an Edwardian feel, lending a steampunk noir aspect to the story. Grand, monumental buildings loom in the dark clouds and a busy Central Terminal train station serves as a repository for the town’s hubbub. A dreamy gloom settles over the city plagued by constant rain. This heavy atmosphere provides a perfectly constructed backdrop for a story that walks the line between realism and surrealism.
In Berry’s world, detectives are pitted against criminals in an endless battle between order and chaos. Crime is something of an art form, dexterously schemed and epic when executed. Major heists—such as The Oldest Murdered Man, The Three Deaths of Colonel Baker, and The Man Who Stole November Twelfth—require imagination, creativity, and even magic on part of the criminals. The main law enforcer, the highly-regarded Agency, relies on resourceful detectives and stringent organizational procedures to solve mysteries and apprehend the guilty.
Charles Unwin, an Agency file clerk, finds his routine and orderly life perfectly acceptable. Content with neatly archiving the details of famed detective Travis Sivart’s cases, Unwin intends nothing more than a simple life for himself. When Sivart goes missing, however, the Agency inexplicably promotes Unwin to rank of detective. Armed with only his trusty umbrella and a copy of the Agency’s guidebook, The Manual of Detection, Unwin is charged with finding the missing Sivart and reinstating normal order.
Unwin, a reluctant hero, first attempts to reject his seemingly mistaken promotion but is met with closed doors and cold shoulders. Before long, he finds himself in over his head: framed for murder and pursued by the very Agency he spent the last 20 years serving. Finally accepting that an orderly and controlled approach won’t help his situation, Unwin opens his mind and The Manual. Broken into 17 chapters of crucial information, The Manual offers profound and sensible insight into the mystery-solving process, mirroring the progression of the real book. Chapter One—“On Shadowing”—divulges, “The expert detective’s pursuit will go unnoticed, but not because he is unremarkable. Rather, like the suspect’s shadow, he will appear as though he is meant to be there.”
Following the book’s advice, with some unsolicited help along the way, Unwin begins unraveling a bigger scandal than predicted. Here the story turns surreal, blurring the lines between reality and dreams—literally. Sivart appears in Unwin’s dream, directing him to Chapter Eighteen of The Manual. But Sivart’s copy has no Chapter Eighteen. He also notices that most of the city’s population has fallen into a perpetual dream state, sleepwalking through their days. Now in search of the lost chapter and an explanation of the townsfolks’ absurd behavior, Unwin thrusts himself into the city’s seedy underbelly. Berry is skilled at creating an imaginative but engrossing world, complete with quirky characters and stunning scenery. Readers become a part of the story and feel as though they are standing right beside Unwin, feeling the rain soak through their own socks as they gather clues to the mystery.
A few prime suspects lay at the heart of the investigation. Berry introduces a cast of colorful characters who are at once bizarre but engaging. A city’s defunct traveling carnival, now renamed the Travels-No-More, provides the city with an eerie troop of delinquents, thieves, and vagabonds. Mastermind magician Enoch Hoffman, crime boss for more than a decade, tops the list of suspects. A skilled biloquist and master of disguise, Hoffman was Sivert’s foremost adversary. His underlings, the once conjoined twins Jasper and Josiah Rook, are also suspect. Every noir detective story needs a femme fatale, and Cleopatra Greenwood fulfills this role. A one-time criminal, Greenwood now claims allegiance to the Agency. Unwin and readers are kept guessing as to whether she can be trusted.
In fact, no one in The Manual of Detection is truly who they seem. Even the Agency superiors cannot be trusted. Ultimately, Unwin must enter the dreams of the man he is accused of murdering to learn the secrets of the strange and nightmarish scandal.
The plot unfolds like a dream, with both slow twists and sudden turns. The novel requires a stretch of the imagination on behalf of the reader, but that only makes it more exciting and unexpected. By the end of the book, the readers will feel as though they are waking from a detailed and intricate dream.
Though Berry takes great care to embellish his characters with distinct and bizarre personas, he fails to create a bond between the characters and the reader. Unwin gains the reader’s sympathy due to his mild-manners and the absurdity of the situation, but he won’t be memorable long after the story ends. This is only a minor complaint, however, as the book’s other qualities more than make up for the lack of emotional connection. By putting a magical twist to an old-fashioned crime novel, Berry will quickly put readers under his spell.
(January 2010)
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