Finley—red-haired, yellow-eyed, sometimes unreliable—narrates a sublime and cryptic debut in the vein of Sam Lipsyte's The Subject Steve
about a group of detectives (or maybe they're not detectives) investigating a peculiar professor. Among the group is Murphy, with his pockets full of marbles and a tendency to be inexplicably smelly; Binelli, the almost omniscient leader of the crew; and the Lamb, who is beautiful and brilliant, or possibly just great at acting brilliant. The dreamy plotlike chain of events at the novel's center revolves around the four detectives trying to find some information of some sort about Professor Uppal and his amazing puppets, though the goals, specifically, are never quite clear, and Henehan finds plenty of time for bizarre asides. At its heart, the novel is an impressionistic tale propelled by Henehan's gorgeously arch prose and a constant stream of droll humor. The ephemeral plotting will either be frustrating or fabulous, depending on the reader, but there's no doubt that Henehan is a talent. (May)
