Call number
Series
Publication
New York: Viking, 2005.
Pages
xii; 383
Description
Fiction. Mystery. Mythology. Humor (Fiction.) HTML:Enter the world of the Nursery Crime Division in this novel from Jasper Fforde, the New York Times bestselling author of the Thursday Next series and The Constant Rabbit Jasper Fforde's bestselling Thursday Next series has delighted readers of every genre with its literary derring-do and brilliant flights of fancy. In The Big Over Easy, Fforde takes a break from classic literature and tumbles into the seedy underbelly of nursery crime. Meet Inspector Jack Spratt, family man and head of the Nursery Crime Division. He's investigating the murder of ovoid D-class nursery celebrity Humpty Dumpty, found shattered to death beneath a wall in a shabby area of town. Yes, the big egg is down, and all those brittle pieces sitting in the morgue point to foul play. "[Forde] knows a thing or two about leaping into new worlds. . . . It's hard not to see what all the enthusiasm is about." -Janet Maslin, The New York Times "A wonderfully readable riot." -The Wall Street Journal.… (more)
Media reviews
Fantasy & Science Fiction
[W]hile Thursday Next was a detective and Jack Spratt is a detective, the feel and the tone of this particular, new homage is totally different, new, and a lot of fun.
Library Journal
The wildly imaginative Fforde delights in satirizing the clichés of detective fiction.
His self-styled "daft novels" are not for the lazy brained but for the actively engaged reader, one who knows the secret pleasures of a word puzzle and can draw on a lifetime of literature.
New York Times
Outrageous satirical agility is his stock in trade: Mr. Fforde has made that clear in a string of literary parodies that pry well-known characters loose from their native novels and plays.
Library Journal
Full of allusions and puns on detective fiction and nursery rhymes, Fforde's fifth novel and first in a new series is good fun for all fiction collections. Highly recommended.
Publishers Weekly
While it can be charming to encounter Mrs. Hubbard or Tom Thomm or to hear Spratt bemoan "illegal straw-into-gold dens" in this unusual context, the novel's broad satire overshadows elements like plot, conflict and characterization.
Kirkus Reviews
Shallow and snarky, though the concept is clever.
Booklist
Fforde is gaining fans, and even readers who start out groaning may find themselves grinning.
Awards
Lefty Award (Nominee — 2006)
Gumshoe Award (Nominee — 2006)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2005
Physical description
xii, 383 p.; 8.7 inches
ISBN
0670034231 / 9780670034239
Similar in this library
User reviews
LibraryThing member Jenners26
5 Things To Know Before Reading This Book
1. It is a murder mystery.
2. The victim is an enormous egg named Humpty Dumpty. (He fell off a wall … or was pushed or possibly shot.)
3. The detective investigating the crime is named Jack Spratt. His partner is Mary Mary.
4. Jack and Mary work for the
5. You should brush up on your nursery rhymes and fairy tales before reading so as to fully enjoy the book. (It took me almost halfway through to dredge up the fact that Jack’s tendency to accidentally off “unusually tall people” was a reference to Jack The Giant Killer.)
4 Other Stories/Tales/Myths Referenced in the Book
1. The Three Little Pigs
2. Jack and the Beanstalk
3. Old Mother Hubbard
4. Wee Willie Winkie
…plus lots lots more.
3 Things I Thought While Reading The Book
1. “Gosh, I just love it when an author has a whimsical and witty sense of humor and isn’t afraid to just have fun.”
2. “I’m sure I’m missing about 25% (and possibly even more) of the jokes and references in this book. But who cares? It is cracking me up anyway.”
3. “Jasper Fforde is kind of a hottie. And he’s smart too.” (Seriously, go Google Jasper Fforde. He's cute!!)
2 Excerpts I Had To Highlight and Share
Excerpt 1:
“…Father liked word games. He was fourteen times world Scrabble champion. When he died, we buried him at Queenzieburn to make use of the triple word score. He spent the greater part of his life campaigning to have respelt those words that look as though they are spelt wrongly but arent.”
“Such as….?”
“Oh, skiing, vacuum, freest, eczema, gnu, diarrhea, that sort of thing. He also thought that ‘abbreviation’ was too long for its meaning, that ‘monosyllable’ should have one syllable, ‘dyslexic’ should be renamed ‘O’ and ‘unspeakable’ should be respelt ‘unsfzpxkable.’”
Excerpt 2:
Mr. Pewter led them through to a library, filled with thousands of antiquarian books.
“Impressive, eh?”
“Very,” said Jack. “How did you amass all these?”
“Well,” said Pewter, “you know the person who always borrows books and never gives them back?”
“Yes….?”
“I’m that person.”
1 Last Thing
I think that you’re either the type of person who likes books like this or you aren’t. Therefore, I’m sure the three possible reactions to this review are:
* “This book sounds aggressively silly and whimsical and that is not my cup of tea at all!”
* “I need to read this immediately!”
* “What the heck took you so long to read Jasper Fforde, Jenners? Haven’t we been telling you how awesome he is for awhile now?”
A funny, cerebral book with lots of word play, silliness and wit to entertain adults. Do not mistake this for a children's book. It is too smart for that!
1. It is a murder mystery.
2. The victim is an enormous egg named Humpty Dumpty. (He fell off a wall … or was pushed or possibly shot.)
3. The detective investigating the crime is named Jack Spratt. His partner is Mary Mary.
4. Jack and Mary work for the
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Nursery Crimes Division (NCD).5. You should brush up on your nursery rhymes and fairy tales before reading so as to fully enjoy the book. (It took me almost halfway through to dredge up the fact that Jack’s tendency to accidentally off “unusually tall people” was a reference to Jack The Giant Killer.)
4 Other Stories/Tales/Myths Referenced in the Book
1. The Three Little Pigs
2. Jack and the Beanstalk
3. Old Mother Hubbard
4. Wee Willie Winkie
…plus lots lots more.
3 Things I Thought While Reading The Book
1. “Gosh, I just love it when an author has a whimsical and witty sense of humor and isn’t afraid to just have fun.”
2. “I’m sure I’m missing about 25% (and possibly even more) of the jokes and references in this book. But who cares? It is cracking me up anyway.”
3. “Jasper Fforde is kind of a hottie. And he’s smart too.” (Seriously, go Google Jasper Fforde. He's cute!!)
2 Excerpts I Had To Highlight and Share
Excerpt 1:
“…Father liked word games. He was fourteen times world Scrabble champion. When he died, we buried him at Queenzieburn to make use of the triple word score. He spent the greater part of his life campaigning to have respelt those words that look as though they are spelt wrongly but arent.”
“Such as….?”
“Oh, skiing, vacuum, freest, eczema, gnu, diarrhea, that sort of thing. He also thought that ‘abbreviation’ was too long for its meaning, that ‘monosyllable’ should have one syllable, ‘dyslexic’ should be renamed ‘O’ and ‘unspeakable’ should be respelt ‘unsfzpxkable.’”
Excerpt 2:
Mr. Pewter led them through to a library, filled with thousands of antiquarian books.
“Impressive, eh?”
“Very,” said Jack. “How did you amass all these?”
“Well,” said Pewter, “you know the person who always borrows books and never gives them back?”
“Yes….?”
“I’m that person.”
1 Last Thing
I think that you’re either the type of person who likes books like this or you aren’t. Therefore, I’m sure the three possible reactions to this review are:
* “This book sounds aggressively silly and whimsical and that is not my cup of tea at all!”
* “I need to read this immediately!”
* “What the heck took you so long to read Jasper Fforde, Jenners? Haven’t we been telling you how awesome he is for awhile now?”
A funny, cerebral book with lots of word play, silliness and wit to entertain adults. Do not mistake this for a children's book. It is too smart for that!
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LibraryThing member the_awesome_opossum
I, for one, was absolutely shocked that the publisher refrained from calling The Big Over Easy a "hard-boiled detective story" anywhere either on the cover or the synopsis. Too easy, I guess, and our detective isn't hard-boiled at all anyway. Jack Spratt is a kindly family man who works in the
Fforde gets to have his fun with allusions both to fairy tales and to the cliches of detective novels. Every chapter begins with a brief news article - "Butler Did Do It Shock" or "Red Herring Use to Be Controlled," for example - and those were my favorite parts. I think that Fforde's writing works best in tiny pieces, because the actual plot of the Big Over Easy often dragged, strangely joyless for such a delightful premise. Maybe it's my fault, I'm not much of a fan of mysteries, but the book didn't live up to the hopes I had for it as a whimsical fun read.
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Nursery Crime Division of the police force, but his superiors have been threatening to shut down the division due to a lack of interest and Jack's abysmal court record (one successful case every 15 months). But Jack gets one last chance when Humpty Dumpty, known for being a shadowy womanizer, is found dead one morning. And he didn't fall - he was shot.Fforde gets to have his fun with allusions both to fairy tales and to the cliches of detective novels. Every chapter begins with a brief news article - "Butler Did Do It Shock" or "Red Herring Use to Be Controlled," for example - and those were my favorite parts. I think that Fforde's writing works best in tiny pieces, because the actual plot of the Big Over Easy often dragged, strangely joyless for such a delightful premise. Maybe it's my fault, I'm not much of a fan of mysteries, but the book didn't live up to the hopes I had for it as a whimsical fun read.
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LibraryThing member elliepotten
A surreal book following DS Mary Mary and DI Jack Spratt in their investigations of the suspicious death of troubled egg Humperdinck 'Humpty' Van Dumpty. They work in the ailing Nursery Crime Division of the Oxford and Reading police force, a laughing stock to other officers. Now they must solve
It sounds mad, and the strange appearance of nursery characters and aliens alongside the human characters does take a few chapters to get used to, but the strange thing is... this really works! It's like a combination of Shrek and CSI - a real murder mystery but with an intelligent and amusing strand of fairytale mockery woven through the whole thing. The three pigs have just been found not guilty of the murder of Mr Wolff (boiled to death when he came down their chimney), and an alien called Ashley (like us but blue) is working in the NCD trying to adjust to his strange human colleagues.
It's funny, it's very clever, and it's well worth a read. I'm looking forward to the Thursday Next novels now!
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this eggy crime to keep the division from being disbanded and the sickeningly charming Friedland Chymes from taking all the glory yet again.It sounds mad, and the strange appearance of nursery characters and aliens alongside the human characters does take a few chapters to get used to, but the strange thing is... this really works! It's like a combination of Shrek and CSI - a real murder mystery but with an intelligent and amusing strand of fairytale mockery woven through the whole thing. The three pigs have just been found not guilty of the murder of Mr Wolff (boiled to death when he came down their chimney), and an alien called Ashley (like us but blue) is working in the NCD trying to adjust to his strange human colleagues.
It's funny, it's very clever, and it's well worth a read. I'm looking forward to the Thursday Next novels now!
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LibraryThing member MerryMary
My first experience with Jasper Fforde. What an introduction! I really enjoyed the mystery, the characters of Sprat and Mary(Mary), and the surreal landscape of the story environment.
I love the juxtaposition of childhood figures and gritty-city crime. I loved the word play and the sly references
I love the juxtaposition of childhood figures and gritty-city crime. I loved the word play and the sly references
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to fairy tales an nursery rhymes outside the main story. Show Less
LibraryThing member reading_fox
Detective Inspector Jack Spratt heads the Nursery Crime Division (NCD) of Reading police dept. That probably tells you all you need to know about this book. Its a massively funy spoof on the whole police procedural genre.
Disappointed after losing his last case (prosecuting the three little pigs
Some of them reference sare somewhat blatent - Inspecter Moose in Oxford, but others are more subtle. There are several that relate to the Thursday Next series, but you won't miss much if you haven't read these. Jack Spratt and Mary Mary are book people from Thursday's world she is instrumental in preventing them from being deleted. Quite how they've ended up in Berkshire is not explained - but there seem to be many book / nursey tale characters there too.
Its a cracking read, and does also work as a whodunnit - the contrived and prolonged final twist, as in all good murder stories, is completely unexpected.
Disappointed after losing his last case (prosecuting the three little pigs
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for the murder of Mr "Big Bad" Wolf, Jack is called in to investigate the apparent suicide of "the Big Egg" aka Humpty Dumpty. Yes he fell off a wall. Fortunetly the Queen's foresnic dept. could do what all the King's men couldn't. They reconstructed his shell and declared it a murder. Th epuns don't get any better but the literary references get worse. There are times when you can just see a pun looming in front of you and when it arrives you just want to shout - NO I can't belive you've just done that. You will get some very odd looks whilst reading this book! Some of them reference sare somewhat blatent - Inspecter Moose in Oxford, but others are more subtle. There are several that relate to the Thursday Next series, but you won't miss much if you haven't read these. Jack Spratt and Mary Mary are book people from Thursday's world she is instrumental in preventing them from being deleted. Quite how they've ended up in Berkshire is not explained - but there seem to be many book / nursey tale characters there too.
Its a cracking read, and does also work as a whodunnit - the contrived and prolonged final twist, as in all good murder stories, is completely unexpected.
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LibraryThing member BeckyJG
The Big Over Easy is the first of Jasper Fforde's Nursery Crime mysteries, a spin off from his arch, clever Thursday Next series. We are introduced to DI Jack Spratt and his new assistant Sergeant Mary Mary (and yes, she can be quite contrary) as they attempt to solve the murder of Humpty Dumpty,
As in the original series, this one is enjoyable in large part because of its inside literary jokes and references, as well as its to-die-for overarching premise: a world in which the book is as important as real life and the story is everything. Often over the top but always enjoyable, Fforde has written another sly, fun mystery.
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found smashed to bits at the base of his wall.As in the original series, this one is enjoyable in large part because of its inside literary jokes and references, as well as its to-die-for overarching premise: a world in which the book is as important as real life and the story is everything. Often over the top but always enjoyable, Fforde has written another sly, fun mystery.
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LibraryThing member atimco
The Big Over Easy is the first in Jasper Fforde's Nursery Crime series featuring investigations involving—you guessed it—nursery rhyme characters. Things aren't going well for Detective Inspector Jack Spratt, who heads up the Nursery Crime Division (NCD) of the Reading police force. As the
And then there's DCI Friedland Chimes, Jack's archnemesis at the force, whose amazing exploits in the detecting world fill the pages of the prestigious true-crime magazine Amazing Crime Stories. Because crime, and the solving thereof, has become primarily fodder for the entertainment world, any detective who hopes to advance his career must join the Most Worshipful Guild of Detectives, which publishes their adventures (and sometimes even does movie deals). Jack is not even in the running for membership—and even if he was, it wouldn't matter, because Friedland is on the selection committee.
The investigation at hand involves the death, possibly by homicide, of Humperdinck Dumpty, aka Humpty Dumpty. This large egg was known for two things: his womanizing and his shady business dealings. He fell off a wall to his death—but was he pushed? As the investigation unfolds, Jack and Mary are plunged into the seedy underbelly so often concealed under the bright trappings of nursery-rhyme lore. The incredibly complex plot involves a massive failing footcare product company, Wee Willie Winky, the Sacred Gonga, genetic experimentation gone wrong, a large beanstalk, a political refugee from Olympus (Prometheus), a biological weapon, Old Mother Hubbard, and a plot to kill the Jellyman. I can't possibly put this in any sensible order for you; you must read the book yourself.
But that's no hardship; it's good fun. Fforde's tone is playfully satirical and very witty. He affectionately pokes fun at the conventions and characters of detective fiction while reimagining nursery-rhyme characters as real-world people who inhabit this alternate-reality world with no remark by the rest of the population. Oh, and there are aliens too, but surprisingly enough, they are actually rather boring and speak mostly in binary.
Jack's a great character and was brilliantly voiced by Simon Prebble, who reads the audiobook version. He did such a good job with Jack that when I got the next book in the series on audiobook, I turned it off in disgust as soon as I heard Simon Vance's voice for Jack. He was far too pompous. Rather than readjust my perception of Jack, I read the print version of The Fourth Bear. I also liked Mary and her little sidestory of betrayal and ambition. Jack's mother is fun, and his family. And their boarder, Prometheus, is a nice addition. I also thought the villain was very well written.
Though I could have done without some of the cruder elements in the book, I enjoyed this story very much and was motivated to pick up the next one right away (something that didn't happen with Fforde's Thursday Next series). I'd recommend this to mystery fans looking for something a little whimsical and different.
Finally, I've refrained thus far—but in a mystery story centering on the murder of a large egg, it is extremely tempting to use the adjective "hardboiled." Fforde must be rubbing off on me...
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story opens, he's coming down off a disastrous prosecution involving three murderous little pigs and a dead wolf. Jack's new detective sergeant, Mary Mary, is sure that she's come to a career dead end in the NCD. Underfunded and overlooked, the NCD has been on unsteady ground for some time now. With this latest failure it will likely be disbanded at the next budget review.And then there's DCI Friedland Chimes, Jack's archnemesis at the force, whose amazing exploits in the detecting world fill the pages of the prestigious true-crime magazine Amazing Crime Stories. Because crime, and the solving thereof, has become primarily fodder for the entertainment world, any detective who hopes to advance his career must join the Most Worshipful Guild of Detectives, which publishes their adventures (and sometimes even does movie deals). Jack is not even in the running for membership—and even if he was, it wouldn't matter, because Friedland is on the selection committee.
The investigation at hand involves the death, possibly by homicide, of Humperdinck Dumpty, aka Humpty Dumpty. This large egg was known for two things: his womanizing and his shady business dealings. He fell off a wall to his death—but was he pushed? As the investigation unfolds, Jack and Mary are plunged into the seedy underbelly so often concealed under the bright trappings of nursery-rhyme lore. The incredibly complex plot involves a massive failing footcare product company, Wee Willie Winky, the Sacred Gonga, genetic experimentation gone wrong, a large beanstalk, a political refugee from Olympus (Prometheus), a biological weapon, Old Mother Hubbard, and a plot to kill the Jellyman. I can't possibly put this in any sensible order for you; you must read the book yourself.
But that's no hardship; it's good fun. Fforde's tone is playfully satirical and very witty. He affectionately pokes fun at the conventions and characters of detective fiction while reimagining nursery-rhyme characters as real-world people who inhabit this alternate-reality world with no remark by the rest of the population. Oh, and there are aliens too, but surprisingly enough, they are actually rather boring and speak mostly in binary.
Jack's a great character and was brilliantly voiced by Simon Prebble, who reads the audiobook version. He did such a good job with Jack that when I got the next book in the series on audiobook, I turned it off in disgust as soon as I heard Simon Vance's voice for Jack. He was far too pompous. Rather than readjust my perception of Jack, I read the print version of The Fourth Bear. I also liked Mary and her little sidestory of betrayal and ambition. Jack's mother is fun, and his family. And their boarder, Prometheus, is a nice addition. I also thought the villain was very well written.
Though I could have done without some of the cruder elements in the book, I enjoyed this story very much and was motivated to pick up the next one right away (something that didn't happen with Fforde's Thursday Next series). I'd recommend this to mystery fans looking for something a little whimsical and different.
Finally, I've refrained thus far—but in a mystery story centering on the murder of a large egg, it is extremely tempting to use the adjective "hardboiled." Fforde must be rubbing off on me...
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LibraryThing member crazybatcow
I'm not going to give this any star rating because I couldn't get through it. I don't like this type of humor and all the "cute" side-tracks into nursery rhyme characters was just... hmmm... too freaking cute for me. I like my fiction dark, moral-free, graphic and scary, this is thick, full of
I think it's actually the exact opposite of what I like reading...
Maybe it's good if you like Terry Prachett's kind of fiction... not if you like Lawrence Block's.
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lecture-y material and inuendos, and sarcastic. Required me to pay too much attention, and to appreciate Fforde's (very British) humor... I did not.I think it's actually the exact opposite of what I like reading...
Maybe it's good if you like Terry Prachett's kind of fiction... not if you like Lawrence Block's.
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LibraryThing member arctangent
In the course of cataloging my book collection for LibraryThing I found that I now own five of Jasper Fforde's novels. Up until recently I had never read any of them, despite being aware that he has a large following of devoted fans. I decided it was time to see what all the fuss was about. I
I was aware before I started that Fforde is known for satire and other forms of humor in his writing, things I'm heartily in favor of. I had high hopes for this book. The alternate universe inhabited by the characters, roughly late 20th or early 21st century Britain but with numerous twists, certainly is a fertile field for Fforde to plow. It's a world in which the boundary between fiction and reality is blurred in a number of imaginative ways, not the least of which is that the citizens of this universe take it for granted that police work and criminal prosecutions are the servants of entertainment, and demand that those endeavors be conducted accordingly. It's an interesting conceit, and one which could haul heavier philosophical freight than Fforde hitches to it with his poking of fun at numerous clichés in modern detective fiction as well as in nursery rhymes. I realize that the book is full of literary and social allusions, some of which I caught, and some I'm sure I missed, but eventually they seemed to have been thrown in just because the author could, as though all editorial functions had been switched off in his brain. He never missed a chance to name his characters in a punning allusional way, and before too many chapters went by, that habit was becoming more irritating than amusing. Some subtlety, giving more credit to the readers' intelligence, would have been welcome. It's way too obvious, for example, for the lead detective of the Nursery Crimes Division to be named Jack Spratt, and for him to hate eating fat, to kill giants, and to cut down overgrown beanstalks.
Perhaps it was with sly deliberation that Fforde invested his plot with some of the same “mistakes” his fictitious population of readers decry in write-ups of criminal investigations. Maybe it was just laziness. Either way, I nearly gave up on this book when the plot dragged on so slowly, with no real progress being made in the search for Humpty Dumpty's murderer for about three quarters of the book. Since this was the first book in what the author seemed to know would become a series, perhaps it was justifiable for him to spend so much time on peripheral aspects of the characters' lives, past and present, but it certainly put a damper on any plot momentum early on in the book.
There was some character development in the book, but not enough to make me feel any real empathy for the main characters, the ones which no doubt reappear in later books in this series (Nursery Crimes).
I came away from this reading experience with very mixed feelings. I had a few really good laughs, more yawns, a few groans. To me, Fforde's ideas for humor seem better than his execution of them. He seemed more interested in going for cheap laughs than in developing some of the genuinely promising themes he introduced. Unlike other reviewers, I'm afraid I didn't find this book to be either a toss away diversion or a well thought-out satire. It fell short on both counts. I won't be running to the bookstore to seek out more of his works, and may not even finish reading the ones I currently own.
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actually picked out two to read, this one and “Lost in a Good Book” (2nd in the Thursday Next series). I finished this one first (and am still plugging away at the other, but in no great hurry to finish it, I'm afraid). So I'll try to keep this review specific to “The Big Over Easy”, and try to avoid any unsupported generalizations to Fforde's other works.I was aware before I started that Fforde is known for satire and other forms of humor in his writing, things I'm heartily in favor of. I had high hopes for this book. The alternate universe inhabited by the characters, roughly late 20th or early 21st century Britain but with numerous twists, certainly is a fertile field for Fforde to plow. It's a world in which the boundary between fiction and reality is blurred in a number of imaginative ways, not the least of which is that the citizens of this universe take it for granted that police work and criminal prosecutions are the servants of entertainment, and demand that those endeavors be conducted accordingly. It's an interesting conceit, and one which could haul heavier philosophical freight than Fforde hitches to it with his poking of fun at numerous clichés in modern detective fiction as well as in nursery rhymes. I realize that the book is full of literary and social allusions, some of which I caught, and some I'm sure I missed, but eventually they seemed to have been thrown in just because the author could, as though all editorial functions had been switched off in his brain. He never missed a chance to name his characters in a punning allusional way, and before too many chapters went by, that habit was becoming more irritating than amusing. Some subtlety, giving more credit to the readers' intelligence, would have been welcome. It's way too obvious, for example, for the lead detective of the Nursery Crimes Division to be named Jack Spratt, and for him to hate eating fat, to kill giants, and to cut down overgrown beanstalks.
Perhaps it was with sly deliberation that Fforde invested his plot with some of the same “mistakes” his fictitious population of readers decry in write-ups of criminal investigations. Maybe it was just laziness. Either way, I nearly gave up on this book when the plot dragged on so slowly, with no real progress being made in the search for Humpty Dumpty's murderer for about three quarters of the book. Since this was the first book in what the author seemed to know would become a series, perhaps it was justifiable for him to spend so much time on peripheral aspects of the characters' lives, past and present, but it certainly put a damper on any plot momentum early on in the book.
There was some character development in the book, but not enough to make me feel any real empathy for the main characters, the ones which no doubt reappear in later books in this series (Nursery Crimes).
I came away from this reading experience with very mixed feelings. I had a few really good laughs, more yawns, a few groans. To me, Fforde's ideas for humor seem better than his execution of them. He seemed more interested in going for cheap laughs than in developing some of the genuinely promising themes he introduced. Unlike other reviewers, I'm afraid I didn't find this book to be either a toss away diversion or a well thought-out satire. It fell short on both counts. I won't be running to the bookstore to seek out more of his works, and may not even finish reading the ones I currently own.
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LibraryThing member iwriteinbooks
There are dead end jobs and then there’s The Dead End Job. Years ago, the city of Reading’s Nursery Crime (yes, you read that right) Division was headed by the a more successful sleuth than Jack Spratt. Unfortunately, he’s just lost one case too many (it turns out that those three murderous
His livelihood hangs in the balance of one last chance when aging playboy, Humpty Dumpty is found dead after a rowdy night on the social scene. When the whole town becomes suspect, Jack is sent, head spinning, down a rabbit hole of red herrings and literal goose chases, causing the public to seriously question whether he should be in the field at all. As the clock ticks down the minutes on Jack’s ailing career, the absurd becomes normal and normal becomes completely obsolete.
This is a fantastic spoof of the detective story. There is a lot of great, dry British humor throughout, recalling Monty Python at many a turn. The plot is fast paced from the get go and never loses momentum. At times, the nursery rhyme and kid-lit word plays are put on a bit thick but some of the more subtle allusions to Grimm and Potter are well worth the cheese. And you needn’t worry about the nursery rhyme theme watering down the adult content. There is plenty of sex, wine and violence to go around. This is most certainly the dark side of the cradle.
I can’t believe I haven’t read anything else by Jasper Fforde. He is definitely on my list of authors to explore more. I think that there is another NCD book and I hope he’s working on others.
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pigs were a jury favorite while the vegetarian wolf failed to overcome public stereotyping) and it looks like, not only his job but his whole division, is headed for early retirement. It’s not that Jack is a terrible detective; it’s just that crime, like all things, is political and he’s been edged out of some high profile cases leaving his career wedged between a rock and a hard place.His livelihood hangs in the balance of one last chance when aging playboy, Humpty Dumpty is found dead after a rowdy night on the social scene. When the whole town becomes suspect, Jack is sent, head spinning, down a rabbit hole of red herrings and literal goose chases, causing the public to seriously question whether he should be in the field at all. As the clock ticks down the minutes on Jack’s ailing career, the absurd becomes normal and normal becomes completely obsolete.
This is a fantastic spoof of the detective story. There is a lot of great, dry British humor throughout, recalling Monty Python at many a turn. The plot is fast paced from the get go and never loses momentum. At times, the nursery rhyme and kid-lit word plays are put on a bit thick but some of the more subtle allusions to Grimm and Potter are well worth the cheese. And you needn’t worry about the nursery rhyme theme watering down the adult content. There is plenty of sex, wine and violence to go around. This is most certainly the dark side of the cradle.
I can’t believe I haven’t read anything else by Jasper Fforde. He is definitely on my list of authors to explore more. I think that there is another NCD book and I hope he’s working on others.
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LibraryThing member riofriotex
Clever and funny murder mystery featuring characters from nursery rhymes and fairy tales. Humpty Dumpty falls from a wall - but appears to have been shot first. Jack Spratt (also of beanstalk fame) and Mary Mary (who can be contrary) investigate. There's also lots of puns in the naming of locations
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and minor characters. Best of all were the beginnings of each chapter, written in the style of book excerpts, news stories, or editorials, that slyly referenced other nursery rhymes or fairy tales and sometimes become relevant to the plot. Show Less
LibraryThing member LizzySiddal
Reputedly not as good as the Thursday Next novels? I loved this. It had me in stitches. It's also very, very clever. Pay attention to the introductory snippets at the beginning of each chapter, which contain magnificent deconstructions of crime writing techniques ... and more than a few clues!
LibraryThing member maughta
Seperate but related to the Thursday Next series, here we have a hard-boiled mystery complete with detective Jack Spratt and sidekick Mary Mary. Who killed Humpty Dumpty? And will the Nursery Crimes division of Reading be scrambled? Or will the investigation be poached? Someone should fry over
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this! A little ponderous at times, hence the low rating, but fun and well-written as all of Fforde's work seems to be. Show Less
LibraryThing member DarcySarto
While Fforde's prose may sometimes be somewhat flat and straight forward, one cannot fail to enjoy his books. They are simply so much fun. One cannot help but marvel at his imagination, and he always crams in a constant procession of weird and wonderful concepts, with a fun and diverting cast of
This (along with SOMETHING ROTTEN) probably represents the most straight-forward and atmosphereless of Fforde's prose. The ideas are still great, and the plot is thoroughly entertaining, but this book isn't as clever or funny as his Thursday Next books by a long margin. One of the joys of TN books is the broad spectrum of references, whereas this book keeps it down to the narrower spectrum of (mainly) Nursery Rhyme characters. That said, there's still plenty of room for jokes based on Prometheus (who appears), the media's approach to crime, and the crime genre overall, and more besides.
If you haven't read Fforde before then go straight for THE EYRE AFFAIR. This book simply isn't as charming and enjoyable as the Thursday Next novels, but if you've read those and you're hungry for more Fforde, then you will enjoy this book.
Oh, and I find it startlingly clever how this book ties into THE WELL OF LOST PLOTS in such an original and mind-bending way. A careful and talented prose-writer Fforde may not be, but he is one of the most intelligent and imaginative plot-writers in fiction at present.
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characters.This (along with SOMETHING ROTTEN) probably represents the most straight-forward and atmosphereless of Fforde's prose. The ideas are still great, and the plot is thoroughly entertaining, but this book isn't as clever or funny as his Thursday Next books by a long margin. One of the joys of TN books is the broad spectrum of references, whereas this book keeps it down to the narrower spectrum of (mainly) Nursery Rhyme characters. That said, there's still plenty of room for jokes based on Prometheus (who appears), the media's approach to crime, and the crime genre overall, and more besides.
If you haven't read Fforde before then go straight for THE EYRE AFFAIR. This book simply isn't as charming and enjoyable as the Thursday Next novels, but if you've read those and you're hungry for more Fforde, then you will enjoy this book.
Oh, and I find it startlingly clever how this book ties into THE WELL OF LOST PLOTS in such an original and mind-bending way. A careful and talented prose-writer Fforde may not be, but he is one of the most intelligent and imaginative plot-writers in fiction at present.
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LibraryThing member rcooper3589
I loved Fforde's Thrusday Next series, so I was excited about starting this one! While it was enjoyable, I constantly found myself comparing it to his other books- and it never quite held up. Once again, the world Fforde creates is full of literary characters and tounge-and-cheeck prose. Like in
FAVORITE QUOTE: "Beautiful," said Megan wistfully, clasping her hands together holding them at her chin, dreaming of a time when she could dress up in ball gowns, go to parties and be kissed by a handsome prince- althought she would accept a knight, if there were problems regarding availability.
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many other novels, Srgt. Mary Mary doesn't want to work in the NCD and seems to sabotage Jack and his investigation. However, in a cliched turn of events, she decides she really does want to work with Jack. I hate this type of literary device. It's so over used.(It's sorta ironic how I'm talking about my dislike for a literary device when they are talked about so much in the book!)But what I really didn't understand is Mary's "swticheroo." I felt it happened too quickly- there didn't seem to be enough reason/time for her to change sides. I did, however, like how refrences to Thrusday Next were intertwined throughout the novel. At one point she even makes an appearance when "a small sports car with the top down and a distinctive paint scheme appeared behind them and drove past at great speed, horn blaring." Even with my hard critcism, I did like the book and will read any future installments. If you haven't read any of the Next books, I would suggest those over this one, however, if you have read them, I think you'd like this one, too!FAVORITE QUOTE: "Beautiful," said Megan wistfully, clasping her hands together holding them at her chin, dreaming of a time when she could dress up in ball gowns, go to parties and be kissed by a handsome prince- althought she would accept a knight, if there were problems regarding availability.
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LibraryThing member jennyk81
Jasper Fforde's "The Big Over Easy" with DI Jack Spratt and Mary Mary is a story about what did really happen to Humpty Dumpty. The crime scene shows he didn't just fall.... The characters in the "Big Over Easy" are great, Jack is well a jack of all trades (Jack the giant killer, Jack who jump over
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the candlestick, etc.), one of his co-workers is a blue alien, and there is this supreme being called the Jelly Man who sounds like a cross between the Pope and a popular president. This story is hilarious and has a mystery twist to it that will keep you intrigued. Show Less
LibraryThing member hoosgracie
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall…but was it an accident, suicide or possibly murder? That is the question that detectives Jack Spratt and Mary Mary must answer in the first book of Ffordes new Nursery Crime series. Although the book at times lags because of
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introductions, it’s a very clever start to the new series. Show Less
LibraryThing member rampaginglibrarian
The first in a great new series from Fforde, who fleshes out nursery rhyme and fairey tale characters with the same flair that he gave classic literary tomes, with a few great crossovers from some of his other works. You know you've found a great author when you await his next book with such eager
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anticipation. Show Less
LibraryThing member hklibrarian
I just LOVED LOVED LOVED this book. Fforde has an off the wall (pun intended) sense of humor and a very clever way of presenting a story. Now I have to go back and read Grimm's Fairy Tales to refresh my dusty nursery rhyme memeory. Too bad our consortium has not yet bought his latest release!
LibraryThing member SimonW11
Mr Fforde plays his usual word games in this crime story about Detective superintendent Jack Spratt's investigation into the death of Humpty Dumpty. Some easy pot shots at the genre he is spoofing and the usual slightly dodgy editing.
LibraryThing member bibliophile1887
Jasper Fforde has done it again! His Thursday Next novels are great, and I was initially concerned when I saw that his latest wasn’t going to be a TN novel. I needn’t have worried. His latest book is hilarious! It takes place in the same parallel universe in which his Thursday Next novels take
The main characters are Detective Inspector Jack Spratt and his partner Detective Sergeant Mary Mary. They are called in to investigate the death of one Humperdink Aloysius Jehoshaphat Stuyvesant Van Dumpty III. Better known as Humpty Dumpty. Apparently he fell off the wall he was perched on. The question that plagues the detectives throughout the book … Did he fall or was he pushed? Actually, neither. But I’ll let you read it and find out for yourself.
Jasper has written a very clever and witty book. There are several references to his other creation, Thursday Next. The book is full of throw away lines about other nursery characters. The gingerbread man is a convicted felon who likes to dismember people. Jack Spratt’s first wife died because she could “eat no lean” and Jack has a problem with killing giants. (Technically only the first one was a giant, the other four were just really tall.) Through a concatenation of circumstances Jack’s mother ends up with a beanstalk outside her house. Mary Mary spends all her time trying to dump her boyfriend. Apparently she’s dumped him several times, but he just doesn’t leave.
Not only are there references to nursery rhyme characters, but there are sly references to contemporary fiction detectives. There is Inspector Moose who is from Oxford, Miss Maple and even Commander Adam Dogleash. All in all it’s a very funny book and one that I highly recommend.
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place. However, instead of taking place in Swindon in the mid-1980’s, these take place in modern day Reading.The main characters are Detective Inspector Jack Spratt and his partner Detective Sergeant Mary Mary. They are called in to investigate the death of one Humperdink Aloysius Jehoshaphat Stuyvesant Van Dumpty III. Better known as Humpty Dumpty. Apparently he fell off the wall he was perched on. The question that plagues the detectives throughout the book … Did he fall or was he pushed? Actually, neither. But I’ll let you read it and find out for yourself.
Jasper has written a very clever and witty book. There are several references to his other creation, Thursday Next. The book is full of throw away lines about other nursery characters. The gingerbread man is a convicted felon who likes to dismember people. Jack Spratt’s first wife died because she could “eat no lean” and Jack has a problem with killing giants. (Technically only the first one was a giant, the other four were just really tall.) Through a concatenation of circumstances Jack’s mother ends up with a beanstalk outside her house. Mary Mary spends all her time trying to dump her boyfriend. Apparently she’s dumped him several times, but he just doesn’t leave.
Not only are there references to nursery rhyme characters, but there are sly references to contemporary fiction detectives. There is Inspector Moose who is from Oxford, Miss Maple and even Commander Adam Dogleash. All in all it’s a very funny book and one that I highly recommend.
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LibraryThing member murraymint11
Ran along at a great pace. Lots of laugh-out-load moments, with clever use of puns and nursery rhyme tales. Loved the references to Inspector Moose from Oxford, Miss Maple for St Michael Mead, and Inspector Dogleash.
LibraryThing member amwhitsett
Jasper Fforde takes the dried-out crusty cliche' detective story and juices it up with some nursery rhyme fun in his Nursery Crime series. Okay, you could do this story with different characters and it would still be the cliche' detective story you see repeated a thousand times on every grocery
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store book aisle, but where's the fun in that? There's nothing major to impart here--just plain fun and games. The book is peppered throughout with literary and er...Mother Gooserary jokes that you might miss if you blink. Definitely check out this one and the sequel, The Fourth Bear, for a fun stress free romp. Show Less
LibraryThing member nchan217
Thoroughly enjoyed this book; both the premise and the characterisations were highly entertaining, and the science (and cleverly detailed pseudoscience) were just plausible enough. Clever writing, well paced, with likeable heroes and dastardly bad guys. Any book that can make me laugh when I've got
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a head cold is definitely a winner. Show Less
LibraryThing member wyvernfriend
Occasionally quite funny but at other times quite forced this is quite a pun-filled and nursery rhyme laced story.
Humpty Dumpty is dead and the Nursery Crime Division investigate. The easiest suspect is his wife who shoots herself, but Jack Spratt and his assistant Mary Mary aren't convinced.
Not
Humpty Dumpty is dead and the Nursery Crime Division investigate. The easiest suspect is his wife who shoots herself, but Jack Spratt and his assistant Mary Mary aren't convinced.
Not
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really to my taste but not the worst I've read. Show Less