The fourth novel in his Nyquist series, Within Without, is Jeff Noon firing on all cylinders and exhibiting true mastery of his craft. He is one of those rarified authors who can inextricably tie together worldbuilding, story, and character. While you can read them in any order, once you meet Nyquist in his 2017 debut A Man of Shadows, you’ll want to grab them all. Nyquist is the noir detective you may not have known you were missing in your reading life.

The first novel follows the orphaned John Henry Nyquist who grew up in Dayzone, a city that is terrified of the dark neighborhoods that lie a train ride away through the hallucinatory terrain of Dusk. Solving this first murder mystery will require Nyquist to travel within the strange landscapes of commoditized time itself and come to terms with his fraying sanity.

The second novel, The Body Library, picks up with Nyquist traveling to the city of Storyville where stories themselves become the centerpiece of reality. How do you know if you are the main character in your own story or only a passing participant in someone else’s tale? What happens when storytelling has real power?

Its follow-up, Creeping Jenny, has Nyquist heading to his birthplace, Hoxley-on-the-Hale, in search of his past. Every day of the year a new Saint is selected and the town’s inhabitants, who find comfort in understood rituals, must adhere to the rules of the day. Nyquist and the reader are thrown into the deep end from day one navigating this bucolic village meets simmering horror while once again trying to solve a series of murders. For the first time in the series one of the characters, the earnest Teddy Fairclough, will be assisting Nyquist on his further adventures.

You’ll know immediately that you’re in for the wildest ride yet because Within Without is taking you to a city named Delirium and the small town at its heart named Escher. This is a story about boundaries, being caught betwixt and between them, and all the symbolism and imagery that comes with borders internal and external. Every chapter unveils a new element of this mysterious city like a marvelously strange revelation. You’re in for the most mind-bending and philosophical Nyquist experience to date. You’ll uncover the enigma behind asymmetrical ladybugs. You’ll meet Vince Craven, a popular movie star whose image has gone missing, and have an audience with the gelatinous Royal Highness King Edwyn III King of Freemantle. Square Circle Square Circle will have you thinking about it long after you’ve put that ingenious chapter behind you. You’ll run into Gregor Samsa from Kafka’s Metamorphosis and Mr. Hyde and Alice Liddell and Miss Havisham. Did I mention the cartoonish black holes peppering the cityscape? Much beyond that and we get into spoiler territory. You should experience Within Without with all the delight of sinking into the carefully orchestrated madness that Noon constructs here with his trademark flourishes of wordplay. The Inception-like journey of this novel leads to a satisfying and elegant ending that feels well and truly earned.

I cannot wait for more.

** Thank you Angry Robot Books and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest, unbiased review ** ( )