051. The Manual of Detection (2009).

The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry (2009).

A classic film-noir detective novel placed in surreal, rainy city which seems like dreaming (!) day and night.  

This is more of Jasper Fforde territory, but this new writer aces it with amazing details and extraordinary plot.

And, of course, with lots and lots of wacky characters.

Story: A plus. Characters: Double A plus.

And the setting? Work of genius!!

*This one is a bit long because there are so many things to talk about here.

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layers. –Every single character in this book is unreal. They are all so unique and bizarre, if I have to guess, I would think somewhere in their mind, a piece of something is either missing or maybe, turned off. In other setting, none of them would fit into any kind of proper storyline, but in this book, those weird characters create amazingly surreal entertainment.

In order to understand characters, you have to know the basic structure of this fantastic world, I think.

The city is run/protected by AGENCY some sort of secret company which is basically a detective agency but do much more than the name indicates. It is a group of trained agents who guard the society from all evils outside.

Like all companies, there are a few levels in its pyramid like class system.   

1.    Watchers.-The Top dogs. They are the ones supervising all detectives, therefore run Agency. They overlook detectives’ caseloads and how they spend resources and everything. Only detectives know who they are or how they look like.

2.    Detectives.-People who actually do all the leg works just like police detectives. They are the ones that get all the credit because they are the only agents who have authority to arrest criminals.

3.    Clerks.-Clerks are people who do all the reports and bookkeeping. There are two different kinds of clerks in Agency: one assigns to a detective or just general clerks who does paper works all day. I don’t know the exact ratio but it seems like there are tons of general clerks in department compare to the detective assigned ones.

Each detective is assign one clerk who organizes evidences and write reports so that detectives can work their cases based on their reports.

 Excellent clerks who often connect the dots from detectives’ original memos can make detectives job a lot easier by solving the crime even before detectives’ finish their works (kind of like arm-chair detectives). And Charles Unwin is the best clerk the Agent’s ever have.

4.    General workers like janitors and security officers and messengers.

And then there are couple more departments each runs secret archive of their own and only few people even know their existence.

Each department personal NEVER talk to each other. Clerks NEVER meet their assigned detectives face to face or even talk to each other. Most people don’t even know there are such people called Watchers on the top of agency hierarchy.

So basically, nobody knows anything and what other agents are doing except what’s going on in their own department and if you leave your office by way of promotion or demotion, you never contact to your previous co-workers ever. Against Agency policy. 

They keep everything totally secret to fight against another secret evil society.

Charles Unwin. The best clerk in the history of Agency. Every other works in clerk department is judged against Charles’ files. For example, if you do a good job, they say something like “It’s as good as Charles’.”.

One day, out of nowhere, he gets promoted to a detective which is crazy because clerk never gets to become a detective ever. And this fantastic story stars from there.

He is a meticulous man who counts and calculates every move and never out of his daily routines. Naturally, he somewhat lacks imagination to become an effective field agent but as case moves on, so does he. No choice.

Every morning, he waits for a woman in the train station who is obviously waiting for someone who never arrives. Then, after he watches her disappearing into the traffic, he goes to work. Same time, same bicycle, same umbrella. Same coffee.

Complete routine. Every morning. Until of course he gets promoted and finds a corpse in office.

Detective Sivart.  The most celebrated Detective in Agency. He cracks almost all the important cases since Agency is established. Without him, there is no Agency, they say. The Detectives’ Detective.

With Charles, he solves all the famous cases like The Oldest Murdered Man, The Man Who Stole November Twelfth, The Three Death of Colonel Baker. All of them become legends now.

Emily.  Charles’ assistant. Really energetic girl who can do almost everything better than everyone around her. Only thing missing from her is a confidence.

Edwin Moore.  A mysterious caretaker who intentionally erases his memory so that he doesn’t have to remember all the secrets of Agency.

Cleopatra Greenwood.  Another mysterious woman who is an informant for Detective Sivart but the same time, works for  Hoffmann too.

Nobody quite figure out what her intentions are but she is everywhere.

Hoffmann.  Ex-circus maste/magicianr and a criminal genius who tries to take over the city with probably the most unique way I have ever encountered.

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lace. –  A big city where, it seems, rain never leave the sky. Looks and sounds a lot like New York around 50’s. So it’s supposed to be a good old time. Except, of course, it’s NOT. 

The city is filled with people who only minds their own businesses on the bright side and weird/fascinating villains on underground and back alley.

And then, there is a circus with all the attraction and a big tent. All of them, however, are abandoned years ago and the circus itself becomes a huge hub for criminals after the main magician, Hoffmann, becomes a criminal mastermind and disappears into abyss.

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lot. – As you can see, there are a lot going on in this book and all of them are wacky and strange, to say the least. In this kind of wild fantasy novel, you need something to hold them all together, putting them all in line to move forward smoothly. In this case, that something is PLOT.

Author Jedediah Berry shows off his remarkable talent of building a story so tight and so perfect (for this setting), once you start reading the book, you will never get confused or feel isolated from the main storyline.

The title “The Manual of Detection” is an actual detective manual created by a mysterious figure in Agency which is given only to detectives so that they can refine their skills to become even better agents. It consists of 17 chapters and each chapter has its own subject which is analyzed and described in simple sentences to memorize.

Now, here is what make this book extraordinary: The actual chapter of this book very faithfully follows the chapter of “The Manual of Detection”. I’ll get into more details.

The first chapter of “The Manual of Detection”, the fictional manual, is called “On Shadowing”. The actual, first chapter of this book is also called “On Shadowing”. The second one from The Manual is called “On Evidence”, and the actual chapter is also “On Evidence”. Do you get it?

The author, carefully and masterfully, builds the entire plot of this book based on the fictional manual he creates for this book. So with each chapter, Charles’ investigation follows the exact path that the fictional manual is assembled.

The chapters in the fictional book “The Manual of Detection” goes like this:

1.    On Shadowing

2.    On Evidence

3.    On Corpses

4.    On Clues

5.    On Memory

6.    On Leads

7.    On Suspects

8.    On Surveillance

9.    On Documentation

10.On Infiltration

11.On Bluffing

12.On Interrogation

13.On Cryptography

14.On Nemeses

15.On Skulduggery

16.On Apprehension

17.On Solutions

18.On Dream Detection. Now, this is the top secret chapter which is only included in top agent Watcher’s manual. All detectives are receiving the manual with only 17 chapters, not 18. 

And, again, the actual storyline of this book very carefully follows those 18 steps. 

So, in the first chapter (On Shadowing), Charles shadows a woman of (his) interest carefully with a hot cup of coffee. Unbeknownst him, he is also shadowed by Detective Pith who, later, gives him a news of promotion which shocks Charles because clerks never get to be promoted to detectives. Ever.

So in the next chapter (On Evidence), he tries find the reason behind his shocking promotion. Only ends up finding a dead Watcher in his office (On corpses) in the third chapter. And with the next chapter, he is naturally looking for clues (On Clues). And the story goes on and on following the index of the fictional manual. Simply put, it is brilliantly done. 

You have to pay attention to every detail because they are all very carefully thought out (and planted) and eventually every one of them just fits into one big piece of amazing puzzle. I think THAT is the definition of the masterpiece.

Here is a simple synopsis of the storyline.

1.    One day, Charles while shadowing the most curious woman he ever met in his life is stopped by one of Detectives in Agency and informed that he is promoted to a Detective, becoming one of them.

2.    Charles who loves his job (clerk) goes to floor thirty six where Watchers stay (therefore, off limits to anyone else) and tries to complain and reverse the promotion. Only to find out that his Watcher, Mr. Lamech is killed in his office. Who did it? And how? Agency’s security is supposed to be air-tight.

 Also, why on Earth he gets promoted? And apparently, there is someone behind the wall hiding in hidden trip door listening him. Why?

3.    Charles also finds out that his (kind of) superior, Detective Sivart is missing from action possibly kidnapped by super villain Hoffmann. At this point Charles realizes that he has left with no other choices: he has to find Sivart and a killer who assassinates Mr. Lamech to get his old job back.

What really amazes me at the end is just how wonderfully this story is wrapped up. Even if the story spreads out so wide and so wild at all directions (specially approaching the climax), at the end of the book, Jedediah Berry somehow arranges everything in line with every single stone turned over and all the mysteries solved with very good explanations and, believe or not, finishes the book with very satisfying, happy end.    

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erdict. This is a magical book where everything is in its right place with bright imagination and amazing craftsmanship which probably is the definition of a masterpiece. 

I hate to compare novels to films because it’s two totally different mediums and books are 10 times better than films always, but if you want to get a sense of what this book offers to you, please go watch the French animation called “Triplets of Belleville” by Sylvain Chomet.

Both are masterpieces of their own genres and both possess similar atmosphere of cool surrealism and unique humor which normal writers can’t even dream of having it….

One of those rare fantasy/film noir mixture which works magically.