The Manual of Detection

Author: Jedediah Berry

Publication Date: 1 January 2010

Publisher: Penguin Books

In an unnamed city always slick with rain, Charles Unwin toils as a clerk at a huge, imperious detective agency. But when an illustrious detective, Travis Sivart, goes missing, Unwin is reluctantly thrust into the role of investigator. His only guidance comes from a sleepy secretary and the pithy yet profound Manual of Detection. Soon he finds himself framed for murder, pursued by gunmen, and confounded by a femme fatale. Meanwhile, strange and troubling questions proliferate: Why does the mummy at the Municipal Museum have modern-day dental work? Where have all the citys alarm clocks gone? Why is Unwins copy of the Manual missing Chapter 18?

When he discovers that Sivarts greatest cases 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.