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26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Can Reading get any more dangerous?, 9 Aug 2006
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...
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Outrageous Fun!, 18 Sep 2006
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!
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34 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The funniest yet, 9 July 2006
This is the second volume in Jsper Fforde's series about Jack Spratt of the Nursery Crimes Division of the Reading police force. Spratt's triumph in the Humpty Dumpt affair ('The big Over Easy')has been overshadowed by some subsequent failures (Red Riding Hood and her Granny swallowed by the Big Bad Wolf). Now the Gingerbreadman, a psychotic killer, has escaped from jail, an investigative reporter called Goldilocks has been murdered, and there are sinister things happening in the world of competitive cucumber growing.
Inspector Jack Spratt also has other things to worry about, like revealing to his wife the awkward fact that he is a PDR (person of dubious reality), his daughter Pandora's upcoming wedding to the titan Prometheus, the trouble with the new neighbours, Punch and Judy, and their unending cycle of domestic violence, and of course there is the profound question to be debated of whether the Gingerbreadman is a cake or a buiscuit (this is more important than it might seem).
I found myself laughing at this book more than any of the previous Jasper Ffordes, the characters are amusing and interesting (especially Ashley the alien policeman, and his famly who strive not very succesfully to live like humans). The plot is ingenious as always, and there is a very exciting climax. Very enjoyable.
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