The Big Over Easy - Jasper Fforde

I am not completely sure why I picked this book up. The front cover-a cartoon esque image of a detective-suggests to me a story basd in years gone by. An era which fails to interest me. It also states that 'it is very funny.' Another aspect which makes me wary. One mans P G Wodehouse is another mans Tom Holt. If that makes sense. Jasper Fforde, author of The Eyre Affair and Something Rotten seems to be well known for his amusing novels although I've rarely come across any. Until now that is. Based in Reading, The Big Over Easy is the first book out of the Nursery Crime series. In an alternative style world where it would be perfectly normal ...  Read the complete review

I started by reading the Thursday Next series but I think I prefer Jack Spratt! this book has lots more charming details in it. The plot is well know to all Humpty Dumpty is off his wall ... did he fall or was he murdered. Heading the investigation is Jack Spratt head of the NCD (Nursery Crimes Division) and his assistant Mary Mary. Reading is full of nursery rhyme characters who think they are really, the gingerbread man is a dangerous psychopath in jail for murder, the 3 little pigs have been tried for murdering the wolf, Punch is constantly being arrested for throwing the baby down the stairs. With all of this going on you can understand why they need ...  Read the complete review

Reading (the place, not the activity, although I half suspect that was why it was chosen here), 2004: Humperdinck von Dumpty the third... recently found in pieces at the bottom of a wall. It's a case for the NCD - Nursery Crimes Division: So did he fall, or was he pushed? Welcome to a mad world where reality is more or less as we'd recognise it - except that nursery rhyme characters form a (persecuted, they'd claim!) minority of society. Here there is a need for legislation to protect anthropomorphic animals with human-like intelligence, such as the (in)famous Three Little Pigs - protect them from being eaten, that is! Forget kosher - check that your morning ...  Read the complete review

My experiences with the utterly dreadful work of Robert Rankin had put me off 'humour' novels with clever punning titles. And so, despite clearly being highly-praised, witty, post-modern works, I steered well clear of the likes of Jasper Fforde and whoever it was that wrote 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being in Aberystwyth' for months. But a bookshop clearance is a bookshop clearance so a few weeks ago I bought The Big Over Easy for a couple of quid and read it more in hope than expectation. Jack Spratt heads up the NCD for Reading Police. NCD standing for Nursery Crimes Department. A mild-mannered likeable man with a blissful family life and no ...  Read the complete review