The Manual of Detection
Review
The premise of this book sounded intriguing because of the notion of a Kafkaesque mystery novel can be very entertaining if done with style. This is definitely done properly, reading like Dashiell Hammett as written by Franz Kafka (or perhaps William S. Burroughs in his more lucid moments). In other words, the nameless city could be any East Coast American city (instead of a similarly anonymous Eastern European city), though there are touches that feel like it could just as easily be London or Liverpool as Chicago or Baltimore, and the hapless protagonist feels more like Gregor Samsa than Sam Spade. In all it’s surreal and engaging. It also reminded me of Colson Whitehead’s The Intuitionist, though I found this book to be more engaging.
Rating: 
Tags: book, fantasy, kafkaesque, mystery, surreal
