- Paperback
- Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd (10 Aug 2006)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0340835729
- ISBN-13: 978-0340835722
- Product Dimensions: 23.1 x 15 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 904,156 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"* 'Consistently clever' - Publishers Weekly * 'This year's grown-up J K Rowling' - The Sunday Times * 'I love it. THE BIG OVER EASY is great not just because it's very funny...but also because it works properly as a whodunit...Comic genius.' - Observer * 'A riot of puns, in-jokes and literary allusions that Fforde carries off with aplomb' - Daily Mail"
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
The Sunday Times
'This year's grown-up J K Rowling'
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
26 of 26 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Crimes are afoot and only one man can hope to untangle the web of intrigue that surrounds them. That man however has a secret, a PDR related secret...
DCI Jack Spratt and DS Mary Mary return to fight crime in the Reading's devilish underbelly ably supported by the slightly underused (in this book) Gretel but the sublimely used DC Ash - who by chance is an alien...
Jack works for the NCD (Nursery Crime Division) and when a reporter is found dead and in a lot of pieces you wouldn't imagine this to be a case that would come under his jurisdiction. However the dead reporter has a rather famous name - Goldilocks. Immediately alerted Jack follows the trail to the 3 bears where immediately he realised Goldilocks' fate was sealed from the moment she ate the porridge... What he also concludes is that maybe all is not as it should be in the Bears household, and who could this mysterious 4th bear be?
The level of intrigue and suspense that Jasper Fforde injects into his books is wonderful, he even manages to add in pointless characters (Dorian Grey) that have unexpected but at the same time completely expected consequences! His use of clichés and expected plot twists is wonderful, I mean how can a book joke about which plot devise they are going to use, then use it and yet the reader is still going to sit there wondering how it all happened!?
It is genius!
The only reason this book doesn't get the full 5 stars is the slightly too obvious ending. By Obvious I don't that the main protagonist is clear from the outset I mean that the way in which the ending is played out is just a little too Hercule Poirot for my liking, Jack and Mary may as well have lined up all the suspects in a room to reveal the bad guy...
That however is only a small gripe and to be honest I am probably only being slightly harsh because of how much I am impressed by all of the other books he has done! I loved the character extension with the relationship between Jack and his wife Madeleine and also the hugely comic Punch & Judy.
Read, enjoy and leave your sense of reality firmly by the door...
DCI Jack Spratt and DS Mary Mary return to fight crime in the Reading's devilish underbelly ably supported by the slightly underused (in this book) Gretel but the sublimely used DC Ash - who by chance is an alien...
Jack works for the NCD (Nursery Crime Division) and when a reporter is found dead and in a lot of pieces you wouldn't imagine this to be a case that would come under his jurisdiction. However the dead reporter has a rather famous name - Goldilocks. Immediately alerted Jack follows the trail to the 3 bears where immediately he realised Goldilocks' fate was sealed from the moment she ate the porridge... What he also concludes is that maybe all is not as it should be in the Bears household, and who could this mysterious 4th bear be?
The level of intrigue and suspense that Jasper Fforde injects into his books is wonderful, he even manages to add in pointless characters (Dorian Grey) that have unexpected but at the same time completely expected consequences! His use of clichés and expected plot twists is wonderful, I mean how can a book joke about which plot devise they are going to use, then use it and yet the reader is still going to sit there wondering how it all happened!?
It is genius!
The only reason this book doesn't get the full 5 stars is the slightly too obvious ending. By Obvious I don't that the main protagonist is clear from the outset I mean that the way in which the ending is played out is just a little too Hercule Poirot for my liking, Jack and Mary may as well have lined up all the suspects in a room to reveal the bad guy...
That however is only a small gripe and to be honest I am probably only being slightly harsh because of how much I am impressed by all of the other books he has done! I loved the character extension with the relationship between Jack and his wife Madeleine and also the hugely comic Punch & Judy.
Read, enjoy and leave your sense of reality firmly by the door...
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
When was the last time you read a totally off-the-wall novel that stretched your imagination past where it had ever been before? Much as I've enjoyed Mr. Fforde's earlier works (The Big Over Easy in this series and The Eyre Affair, Lost in a Good Book, The Well of Lost Plots and Something Rotten in the Thursday Next series), The Fourth Bear took me to new and more interesting places than I had enjoyed in many years. It was much like the experience of first reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
The Nursery Crime Division is back again with Jack Spratt, Mary Mary and Ashley (the alien) pursuing offbeat crimes involving Persons of Dubious Reality (fictional characters). As usual, the members of NCD are constantly being shunted aside, put on probation and ordered off serious cases. But they soldier on in hilarious offbeat fashion. We get to know each of them better in this novel as the story extends to include their relations with the opposite sex.
There are so many oddball threads to this story that you'll wonder how in the world they might be connected. But it doesn't really matter, because each page is full of standalone wit, satire and outrageous good fun.
I hesitate to describe much about the book except to note that it features a homicidal killer, the Gingerbreadman, who is a sort of edible version of an angry Wookie. He likes to tear the arms off his victims. You'll learn a lot about cucumbers and their potential. In addition, the hidden side of several storybook characters will be revealed in surprising ways.
As in The Big Over Easy, the overall novel is written as a police procedural (which aspect itself is quite a satire of the genre). There are solid clues embedded throughout that will safely lead you to the right conclusions . . . if you can stop goggling over the very funny material on every page long enough to pay attention to the clues.
I had an immediate urge to reread the book as soon as I finished it. I cannot remember the last time I had that reaction to a novel.
Be prepared for un-ending laughter!
The Nursery Crime Division is back again with Jack Spratt, Mary Mary and Ashley (the alien) pursuing offbeat crimes involving Persons of Dubious Reality (fictional characters). As usual, the members of NCD are constantly being shunted aside, put on probation and ordered off serious cases. But they soldier on in hilarious offbeat fashion. We get to know each of them better in this novel as the story extends to include their relations with the opposite sex.
There are so many oddball threads to this story that you'll wonder how in the world they might be connected. But it doesn't really matter, because each page is full of standalone wit, satire and outrageous good fun.
I hesitate to describe much about the book except to note that it features a homicidal killer, the Gingerbreadman, who is a sort of edible version of an angry Wookie. He likes to tear the arms off his victims. You'll learn a lot about cucumbers and their potential. In addition, the hidden side of several storybook characters will be revealed in surprising ways.
As in The Big Over Easy, the overall novel is written as a police procedural (which aspect itself is quite a satire of the genre). There are solid clues embedded throughout that will safely lead you to the right conclusions . . . if you can stop goggling over the very funny material on every page long enough to pay attention to the clues.
I had an immediate urge to reread the book as soon as I finished it. I cannot remember the last time I had that reaction to a novel.
Be prepared for un-ending laughter!
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book has some fantastic references to nursery rhymes and this, coupled with the wornderful and rather artistic way in which Jasper Fforde writes not to mention the humour (my family complained about the way I would burst into laughter at odd moments - that is until I got them to read it) make this a very enjoyable read.
I strongly recommend this book to anyone who has ever heard a nursery rhyme, anyone who enjoys humour or anyone who likes a good crime novel.
I strongly recommend this book to anyone who has ever heard a nursery rhyme, anyone who enjoys humour or anyone who likes a good crime novel.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Pure Genius
I only started reading Jasper Fforde books this year, but have now read them all, with this being the latest. Read more
Published 21 months ago by simon211175
Jasper at his best
Another triumph of off the wall humour from Jasper Fforde. Where does he get his ideas from? From a fan of all his novels.
Published on 9 Dec 2009 by Rory Hennessy
Hilarious
A great funny read with unbelievably a great plot to boot. Be warned it's definitely quirky and if your constitution is weak you could 'die laughing'.
Published on 11 July 2009 by Mr. David Edwards
Side splitting funny
Nursery rhyme characters exist and they live in Reading! This as got to be the most brilliant premise since the discworld. Read more
Published on 24 Jun 2008 by R. C. Norlund
Outrageous Fun!
When was the last time you read a totally off-the-wall novel that stretched your imagination past where it had ever been before? Much as I've enjoyed Mr. Read more
Published on 5 Oct 2007 by Donald Mitchell
Brilliant
I love the Jasper Fforde Books, if you really want to take your mind off things than read Jasper Fforde.
His Second book in the Nursery Crime series is just great fun to read
His Second book in the Nursery Crime series is just great fun to read
Published on 30 Aug 2007 by fourtytwo
Fabulous comic novel
I just love Jasper Fforde. His novels are so supremely silly but with an underlying hint of erudtion. Read more
Published on 12 May 2007 by P. G. Harris
Not as good as The Big Over Easy
I thought it was too good to be true - an author like Jasper Fforde whose writing is new, original and hillariously funny, and what's more, keeps on being funny, book after book. Read more
Published on 29 Aug 2006 by A. J. Campbell
Still very clever
I was so looking forward to this coming out but was a bit disappointed. It's all still very clever and I loved the references to the Quangle Wangle (one of my favourite poems) but... Read more
Published on 10 July 2006 by Badgergirl
The funniest yet
This is the second volume in Jsper Fforde's series about Jack Spratt of the Nursery Crimes Division of the Reading police force. Read more
Published on 9 July 2006 by L O'connor
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