The Imaginary Corpse

First off, a catchy title for this inaugural novel by Tyler Hayes. Add to that a narrator who is a plush yellow stuffed triceratops named Tippy the Detective. How could anyone resist?! The Stillreal is a world inhabited by Ideas, Nightmares and imaginary Friends that are too big to die once their creators can no longer make use of them. As Tippy describes it to Stillreal initiates, "Here are the two things you absolutely need to know. First: in case you didn't know, you're an idea. Im' not sure if youre an imaginary friend or a novel's protagonist or a mascot or what. But if you're here, you"re an idea. Second: You were loved. You were loved enduringly and unequivocally, and that made you capital-R Real. Not an idea; an Idea. A Friend."
 There are multiple communities in Stillreal and Tippy happens to be a well-known and respective detective familiar with many of them, although his home is in Playtime Town, where he shares an apartment with Spiderhand, who loves tea parties and plays a mean piano. Tippy himself is very PC, always asking what pronouns to use when first meeting a new arrival; he shuns all curse words (his creator was an 8-year girl), and slugs rootbeer from a flask like the best hard-boiled detective.
In the Stillreal, no one ever dies, even if they get killed in a fight; they just renew themselves. Until the day the Man in the Coat comes to the Stillreal and starts killing the inhabitants permanently. When Tippy witnesses one such "murder" up close and personal, he makes it his mission to find out who this newest Nightmare is and put a stop to his activities. Friends are dying and that just isn't allowed to happen! Publishers Weekly calls this fantasy tale of tracking a serial killer "an affectionate, lightly mocking homage to noir tales." It is also a sweet tale of finding courage in the face of fear and standing by your friends through thick and thin...a timely tale in our world at war with a viral pandemic. Imaginative world building and interesting variety of characters you will cheer for.