THE SEVERED HANDS OF OLIVER OLIVOVICH

A novel offers a zany murder investigation.

At the outset of Hoffmann’s ambitious series opener, a village named Backwater (which exists in a world called Milieu, a place “a couple of realities to the left of our own”) is beset with alligators. Although there are some fatalities, things more or less return to normal once the attack subsides. Nevertheless, Backwater has bigger problems. A Ruskovian diplomat named Oliver Olivovich Garky is found dead. Sir Septimus Farquhar-Urquhart is sent to investigate. Septimus, accompanied by his faithful dwarf, Foxgang, goes about piecing together this seemingly straightforward murder in a world that is anything but. Milieu is a place where caring for an imaginary dog is not unheard of and sea gulls have their own Sudoku. Or at least one sea gull does. A major impediment to Septimus’ investigation is the prefect of Backwater, Johnny Toobad. Toobad, who has at his disposal a hyperintelligent sea gull with a penchant for children’s fingers, is not particularly keen on helping anyone but himself. But Toobad’s attitude, along with just about everything else surrounding the murder of Garky, is open to more twists, as one character phrases it, than a “human bowel.” Violent, overflowing with vulgar humor (the equivalent of Facebook in this world is called “TwatFace”), and never short on magic (Septimus is also helped by “were-weasels”), the narrative is wild indeed. Yet it all progresses smoothly, like a raunchy, unsettling police procedural in the spirit of Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Still, the comedy has its limits. The were-weasel members of Septimus’ team are not nearly as amusing or endearing as, say, poor Foxgang, who, as a dwarf, takes everything literally and struggles to understand idioms. One were-weasel, on the other hand, has the ability to pull just about anything out of a magic rucksack. This talent is not quite as much fun as it sounds. Yet in the end, this bawdy mélange never ceases to astound.

While not every aspect is sidesplittingly funny in Milieu, readers are unlikely to forget it.