Reviews

“From the classic tropes of the detective procedural, this debut novel weaves the kind of mannered fantasy that might result if Wes Anderson were to adapt Kafka…. A strange and haunting dream, with its own persuasive logic and somnambulant pacing.” —The New Yorker

“Surreal, absurd, and cerebral, full of sly humor and winks, this novel is meticulously written and plotted. Fans of George Orwell, Ray Bradbury, and Jasper Fforde, take notice.” —The Boston Globe

“The Manual of Detection might not follow the detective-fiction manual, but there is nothing mysterious about the appeal of this inventive, outrageous and often amusing dream-within-a-dream.” —The Wall Street Journal

“Berry sets up a neat literary game and plays it through to the end with a great deal of wit and aplomb…. A distinctively surreal whodunit.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“Jedediah Berry has an ear well-tuned to the styles of the detective story from Holmes to Spade and can reproduce atmosphere with loving skill.” —Michael Moorcock

“Take everything you think you know about classic pulp-noir detective fiction, turn it sideways and look at it through a hall of mirrors…. An immensely satisfying read.” —Bookpage

“The Manual of Detection is a mystery in the purest sense of the word: elusive, strange, and immensely compelling.” —Boldtype

“Echoes of Borges and Terry Gilliam abound in Jedediah Berry’s brilliant debut.” —Details

“The prose snaps with smart imagery, and with tableaus both wondrous and inexplicable. This is monstrously impressive stuff.” —The Valley Advocate

“Berry has written an eerie and unusual delight, employing the conventions and plotting of mystery novels in ways that are resonant of many predecessors, but haven’t been done quite like this before…. An impressive feat of literary prestidigitation.” —Las Vegas Weekly

“Berry has created a wonderful and fantastic world, a vintage mystery seen through a hall of fun-house mirrors… This is a remarkably auspicious debut.” —Booklist

“Berry’s ambitious debut reverberates with echoes of Kafka and Paul Auster.” —Publishers Weekly

“A boldly inventive deconstruction of Cartesian metaphysics, the criminal-justice system and the well-oiled detective story.” —Kirkus

“Shuttles readers gently into a world that is built from the stuff of dreams… The Manual of Detection is written with a hard-boiled crispness married to a magical sensibility.” —Rick Kleffel, The Agony Column

“Jedediah Berry’s first full-length novel is wonderful. With boundless imagination and razor keen characterization, he has delivered a smart, fun story that appeals to the mystery lover and the magical realist fan all at once.” —The Inside Flap

“Dreams are fair game in this book’s idea of detective work, and Berry offers a fun meditation on the relationship between perception and reality.” —Time Out New York

“I succumbed to the whimsy and wonder of what was inside…. Fall down the rabbit holes. Search for the missing alarm clocks. And prepare to expand your mind even a smidgen.” —Sarah Weinman, flavorwire.com

“I was impressed, besotted, and transported by The Manual of Detection. Such a great book! Surprising and completely satisfying, with mythic images and precise sentences. I wish I’d written it, but I’m almost as happy just to have read it.” —Karen Joy Fowler, author of The Jane Austen Book Club and Wit’s End

“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.” —Kelly Link, author of Magic for Beginners and Pretty Monsters

“Jedediah Berry knows magic. The Manual of Detection combines the intricacy and thoughtfulness of Borges and Kafka with the page-turning excitement of a detective thriller… It made me laugh, thrill, think, and wonder.” —Hannah Tinti, author of The Good Thief

“A tingling masterpiece of elegant noir and storytelling verve—full of sizzling oddballs, sparkling villains, and knock-out femme fatales. The story unfolds with a knife-thrower’s accuracy, and like the Manual says, ‘with a corpse around the next corner.’”  —Maria Flook, author of My Sister Life and Lux

“In this richly imagined, genre-defying work, our hero’s search for truth is subverted by consciousness that can itself deceive, by perception that cannot be trusted. The Manual of Detection establishes Berry as a wholly original, brilliant new voice in fiction.” —Sabina Murray, author of Forgery, A Carnivore’s Inquiry, and The Caprices

“I feel like I found the thesis Encyclopedia Brown wrote after he grew up and went to Hogwarts. Except that in parts it’s like the movie Brazil. I don’t know whether there’s a plan for a sequel, but I want more.” —Alexander Chee, author of Edinburgh

“Great fun and very clever. My comparison? Flann O’Brien’s The Third Policeman—which is about as good as it gets.” —The Observer

“Berry’s work is reminiscent of the coolest young American novelists—Michael Chabon, Jonathan Lethem, Glen David Gold — in its sheer delight at how genre writing can be re-invigorated and re-imagined. The Manual of Detection makes the weird, fantastical world of the unconsciousness seem comically logical—like its subject, it is a dream.” —The Scotsman

“A wryly cerebral take on noir fiction.” —The Financial Times

Praise for the audiobook

“Pete Larkin is perfectly suited for this whimsical, Kafkaesque noir; his smooth and sympathetic narration makes the bizarre twists perfectly logical and sensible. He also provides homage to the hard-boiled staples: the seasoned detective, the naïve but clever clerk, the eager assistant, the brutish thugs, the sinister mastermind and the femme fatale. The strength of the story and the talent of the reader mesh beautifully.” —Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

“If Kafka had a sense of humor, he might have written The Manual of Detection. Pete Larkin’s performance takes Jedediah Berry’s absurd and fantastical situations and his tightly controlled, intelligent, and downright funny writing, and turns the plight of hapless Charles Unwin into a rollicking audio romp through surreal chaos.” —AudioFile (AudioFile Earphones Award Winner)