The Imaginary Corpse by Tyler Hayes

Author: Tyler Hayes 

Title: The Imaginary Corpse

Publisher: Angry Robot 

Published: 2019

Pages: 400

Genre: Fantasy Crime

     Most ideas fade away when we're done with them. Some we love enough to become Real. But what about the ones we love, and walk away from? Tippy the triceratops was once a little girl's imaginary friend, a dinosaur detective who could help her make sense of the world. But when her father died, Tippy fell into the Stillreal, the underbelly of the Imagination, where discarded ideas go when they're too Real to disappear. Now, he passes time doing detective work for other unwanted ideas - until Tippy runs into The Man in the Coat, a nightmare monster who can do the impossible: kill an Idea permanently. Now Tippy must overcome his own trauma and solve the case before there's nothing left but imaginary corpses.

      When I first came across this book I honestly wondered just what it was that I had found. When your eyes graze across the synopsis you kind of have to scratch your head and read it again. But the more I thought about it, the more my curiosity was peaked. First, off the bat, we have what appears to be a crime tale all be it instead of human victims we have imaginary friends. There was also the slight touch of old-school noir books of the nineteen forties. A genre that I am always a sucker for. It would also be amiss of me to say that when I read the blurb it screamed more than a little of Who Framed Roger Rabbit. A film that I have watched countless times. It's a bending of genres that rarely happens in the world of film but maybe more so in fiction. So with all these things bundled up within the pages of one book how could I not give not only this book but its author a chance? 

     Trippy whilst being a bright yellow talking triceratops still seems to embody all those things we love in a truly great detective. Witty and sarcastic at times and straight-up adversarial at others it serves as a defense mechanism. we can still see the hurt that haunts his heart. This is a dinosaur that still remembers the love and compassion of a little girl that once called him home. He has now lived long enough to be outgrow and she has forgoten him for the throws of the adult world. But I feel that is the exact reason he is so good at his job in the Stillreal.  He long to be able to make that connection again even if it does scare him to let his shield down. This might all just sound a little familiar and in part, I think that the author mages to grab hold of all those best qualities we look for in our crime novels. Except here he has given them a little shake-up. Trippy also comes with a great cast of saints and sinners. All those staples of a great Noir novel are represented here from crime bosses to the local snitch all be it in some more than unusual forms. What it does is give this tale a little grounding, when you can recognize these staples you are more willing to accept the more fantastical elements that come along with this book. 

     I think that Hayes has delivered  a marvelous spin on an a genre that has been around for a very long time. Not only has he managed to craft a great murder mystery that is brilliant to delve into. He has also written a book on the lament of our loss of childhood. That as we age we let go of those things our imagination created to keep us safe and also understand the world. It runs deep in every character we come across within these pages the only thing that differs is how each of them chooses to deal with this. It is also why I was a little taken aback by this book. What I thought was going to be a light-hearted parried of a genre I great love turned out to be something entirely more. And I realize that is on me I'm too quick to right off fantasy book as just being a bit of ent entertainment when in reality some are also very good at shinnying a light back on us. It does however takes both these elements he has bottled up to make it work. And surprisingly it is the detective aspects of this work that serve to lighten the tone. It gives us hope that no matter what we have left behind there is hope for more to come. Even for those imaginary friends, we have left in our adolescence. 

     The Imaginary Corpse was a book that took me on an emotional journey that I had not at first been expecting whilst I reveled in the detective elements that reminded me of some of those old books I have loved for many a year. It was a novel way to look at childhood trauma and loss. How we hold those things with us long after we have left our younger years? All in All, this was a book that I'm grateful I came across even if it happened to be by complete chance.