Product Description
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.
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.
Reviews/Praise
—AudioFile
“Berry's ambitious debut reverberates with echoes of Kafka and Paul Auster.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Weaves the kind of mannered fantasy that might result if Wes Anderson were to adapt Kafka.”
—The New Yorker
“Pete Larkin's (The Last Campaign) carefully fashioned portrayals of the stock characters—worldly Dectective Sivert, innocent, clueless clerk Unwin, femme fatale Cleopatra Greenwood, folksy janitor Arthur, elderly Colonel Baker, and evil magician Enoch Hoffman—help the listener keep track of who's who but never what's what! Fans of Jasper Fforde and Dashiell Hammett will appreciate.”
—Library Journal
“Pete Larkin is perfectly suited for this whimsical, Kafkaesque noir; his smooth and sympathetic narration makes the bizarre twists perfectly logical and sensible. The strength of the story and the talent of the reader mesh beautifully.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Larkin’s deep, sonorous voice sets the perfect tone for this debut novel. Larkin’s characterizations are dead-on.”
—Booklist