The Manual of Detection

Berry, Jedediah

ISBN 10: 1594202117 / ISBN 13: 9781594202117

Editore: The Penguin Press, New York, New York, U.S.A., 2009

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First Edition/First Printing (Number Line With The One Present). Green And Black Illustrated Boards With Light Yellow Lettering On The Front And Spine. Codice articolo 046932

Dati bibliografici

Titolo: The Manual of Detection

Casa editrice: The Penguin Press, New York, New York, U.S.A.

Data di pubblicazione: 2009

Legatura: Hardcover

Condizione: As New

Condizione sovraccoperta: Not Issued

Edizione: 1st Edition

Descrizione articolo

Riassunto:

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.

Recensione:

“Bryan Burrough has long been one of this nation’s best storytellers, but he has outdone himself with his tour de force, The Big Rich. Set amid the rough and tumble of the Texas oil fields and stretching to the halls of political power in Washington, this epic tale reveals the hidden undercurrents of modern American history that flowed from four families of unimaginable wealth and recklessness. With an unerring eye for detail, Burrough dissects their lives and histories, starting with the patriarchs—struggling, poorly educated men who might have remained forever unknown if not for their success at pulling black ooze from the ground. The Big Rich lays bare their arrogance and aspirations, their principles and hypocrisy, their daring and foolishness, taking readers deep inside a world of affluence that has remained secret for far too long. It is, quite simply, a triumph.”
—Kurt Eichenwald, author of The Informant and Conspiracy of Fools