The Big Over Easy: Nursery Crime Adventures 1 - Softcover

Fforde, Jasper

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0340897104 ISBN 13: 9780340897102

Publisher: Hodder Paperbacks, 2006

Synopsis

It's Easter in Reading – a bad time for eggs – and no one can remember the last sunny day. Humpty Dumpty, well-known nursery favourite, large egg, ex-convict and former millionaire philanthropist is found shattered beneath a wall in a shabby area of town.

Following the pathologist's careful reconstruction of Humpty's shell, Detective Inspector Jack Spratt and his Sergeant Mary Mary are soon grappling with a sinister plot involving cross-border money laundering, the illegal Bearnaise sauce market, corporate politics and the cut and thrust world of international Chiropody.

As Jack and Mary stumble around the streets of Reading in Jack's Lime Green Austin Allegro, the clues pile up, but Jack has his own problems to deal with.

And on top of everything else, the Jellyman is coming to town...

About this title

Review

The word of mouth on Jasper Fforde has long been enthusiastic, among those in the know. But now that his readership has expanded immeasurably, the expectations for such books as The Big Over Easy are considerable. And whether or not those expectations will be met by this new book depends on the readiness of readers to strike out in new directions--just as the author has done. Fforde’s speciality has long been the outrageous teasing of narrative forms, and there's a measure of that here, although more disciplined than in earlier books.

Rather in the fashion in which Stephen Sondheim exploded the world of fairytale in Into the Woods, Fforde here brings all the apparatus of the tough crime thriller to bear on the nursery rhyme. Minor baronet Humpty Stuyvesant Van Dumpty III has been found dead--and in pieces--beneath a wall in a less salubrious area of town. The perpetrator would appear to be his ex-wife, but she has shot herself. Detective Inspector Jack Spratt and his colleague Mary Mary are assigned to the case, and soon find themselves knee-deep in money-laundering, bullion smuggling and major problems with beanstalks.

This isn't quite the Fforde mixture as before, although he has previously favoured a crime motor for his plots. The skill in this outrageously entertaining (and rigorously plotted) concoction lies in a double conjuring trick: we are always amazed to find ourselves reading so assiduously about ludicrous figures (who become quite as interesting heroes as, say, Philip Marlowe) when common sense dictates only children should find such conceits entertaining. Not so! No child could appreciate the dazzling wordplay and witty imagination on offer here, and most readers will be more than happy to encounter detective Inspector Jack Spratt (and his contrary sidekick kick Mary Mary) again and again. --Barry Forshaw

Review

Consistently clever (Publishers Weekly)

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)

A riot of puns, in-jokes and literary allusions that Fforde carries off with aplomb (Daily Mail)

Now humour is notoriously subjective so what I've just described might just sound plain daft to you. But I love it. THE BIG OVER EASY is great not just because it's very funny but also because it works properly as a whodunnit. Comic genius. (Observer,Peter Guttridge)

'More twists and turns than Christie ... embellished with the rich details of a Dickens or Pratchett. A real treat.' (Independent )

'The combination of fantasy and a (more or less) classic murder . . . makes a wild and enjoyable change' (Sunday Telegraph)

Very accomplished indeed. (Guardian)

'Fforde offers a cascade of puns, plays on words, surrealism, satire and verbal virtuosity based on children's rhymes and stories. Astonishingly, he stays funny for 400 pages . . . Even more amazingly, there's a real plot there, a proper mystery with a surprise solution' (The Times)

'This is the first of best-selling Fforde's hilarious, absurd and utterly compelling new series' (Daily Mirror)

Edition details

• Publisher: Hodder Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0340897104
• ISBN 13: 9780340897102
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 416