The Shroud of the Thwacker

A spoof of the historical crime novel by Chris Elliott (yes, that Chris Elliott).

This is probably the funniest thing I've read since Douglas Adams' The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul. I had to read it in sections because I would laugh too hard to keep going.

Very smart, dense, satire. It pulls no punches. Here's an example. Inscribed on the version of the Statue of Liberty at the time of the novel, in the late 1800s:

Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses from no further south than Spain and no further east than Russia (unless they're good with railroads).