Old school characters in new world setting. Fun detective story from the underdog perspective. Was a little bit slow in the middle of the tale but I love Fforde's writing style so it kept me coming back for more!

This was really cute! I always enjoy Jasper Fforde's creative storytelling, and The Big Over Easy is no exception, as Detective Jack Spratt of the Nursery Crime Division investigates the tragic demise of one Mr. Humpty Dumpty. Fans of classic detective stories - Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple, etc. - will find plenty to chuckle about in this mystery romp.

After reading a couple of really heavy stories, I felt the need for something light. Something fun. Something that I could sink my teeth into, only to find it was full of chocolate. And that’s why I picked up this book, at this time.

Many, many years ago I picked up Jasper Fforde’s ’The Eyre Affair’ at a small bookshop when I was desperate for something to read. I went on to devour the rest of the Thursday Next series, and fell in love with Fforde’s voice and style. He’s the type of storyteller who can spin a ludicrous tale with a straight face, and have even the most sceptical listener wondering if perhaps, just perhaps, there’s a measure of truth to his story.

Humpty Dumpty is an egg. A four-foot tall egg. He’s found dead, having apparently fallen off his wall in the middle of the night. Or was he pushed?During the course of the investigation, DI Jack Spratt and DS Mary Mary encounter three little pigs, the gingerbread man, magic beans, three bags of wool, Georgio Porgia, and a host of other familiar characters.

The whole story is full of little in-jokes and cute coincidences, but the key word in “nursery crime” is definitely “crime”. Fforde tells the story straight — it’s a police procedural with nursery rhyme characters. There’s a CSI team, a medical examiner, forensic evidence, clues and red herrings, unexpected confessions, jealousy, subterfuge, lies, and enough straight-faced satire for any three books.

Fforde’s writing is hilarious — effortlessly so, it would seem — but this is so much more than just a comedy. It’s one of the best mystery stories I’ve read in quite a while.

PopSugar Reading Challenge 2020: A book with a pun in the title.

Jasper Fforde is certainly a prolific writer. I've loved his Thursday Next and Last Dragonslayer series so I thought I'd try the Nursery Crimes books.

On the face of it they are very like Thursday Next - set in a provincial city is the Nursery Crimes Division who investigate the lawlessness in children's nursery rhymes.

The first mystery is who pushed Humpty Dumpty to his death from his favourite wall? What follows is an intricate, surprisingly complicated and tautly woven story which pulls in so many other nursery rhymes. We meet (amongst others) Wee Willie Winkie and Solomon Grundy plus Lola Vavoom puts in a cameo appearance.

Our hero, DI Jack Spratt (he who can eat no fat) is ably assisted by DS Mary Mary amongst others. He is actively hindered by his nemesis, Friedland Chyme, who can do no wrong, gives good prose and is desperate to head up the Dumpty case.

I can't say this is quite as funny as Last Dragonslayer but it is certainly as clever and intricately plotted as the Thursday Next series. I am in awe of anyone who uses literature and language the way Jasper Fforde does.

Clever, funny, great plot. Highly recommended for any Jasper fans.

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The Sunny Side Up Tomorrow (or How I Cracked the Egg Poacher Case)

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Jack Spratt might be the hard-boiled detective in Jasper Fforde's mystery parody The Big Over Easy, but the yoke is on Humpty Dumpty, who is scrambled to death in the first few pages. Dumpty's demise leaves Inspector Spratt in hot water; if he can't find Dumpty's murderer by Saturday, he may as well quiche his career goodbye.

The Big Over Easy, does not quite come up to the high standard set by Fforde's creative and ingenious The Eyre Affair, but very few books do. None the less, it is a hilarious sendup of classic detective fiction and nearly every cliche in that genre is thoroughly punctured by Fforde's dagger-sharp, manic wit.

Like its predecessor, The Big Over Easy, takes place in a universe in which literary characters have lives of their own outside of their books; however, rather than visiting the world of such classic literary personalities as Jane Eyre and Mrs. Haversham, this novel delves into the sordid lives of the characters who dwell in the nursery rhyme and fairy tale ghetto in Reading, England. We learn, for example, that the three little pigs may have conspired to murder a poor innocent named Mr. Wolff; that Tom Thom, the respected concert flutist's offspring, was a serial pig-napper; and that old Mother Hubbard should be investigated for cruelty to animals.

So, what are you waiting for. Get out there and buy this eggstrordinary,. . . sorry, . . .You have to get this incredible editible . . . no, . . . sorry again. . . look, just read it, OK? It will crack you up.

3.5 stars

I just couldn't get into this book at all...

This book is so quirky, weird, out there and hilarious that some problems with this book (that I would go crazy over in other books) seems to be drowned in the insanity. It's good, flawed but so damn fun:

1) How could you not like a world where Nursery Rhyme characters real? From Humpty Dumpty, Mary Mary, Jack the Giant Slayer, Little Bo Peep to name a few are here and they are familiar but fresh at the same time. The world also seems familiar to us (well the English more so I suppose) and yet these strange creatures are here inhabiting the same space normal people are...oh and did I mention there are also Aliens?! :)This world is like a kid's sandbox, where logic is thrown out and you can have situations where Humpty will face off against Solomon Grundy, a world of Titans and Giant Monsters...it's outrageous and completely fun.

2) The story is fun, being that the world it takes place in is insane, however standard procedural fare. It's a lot more methodical than I would have expected, given the zany nature of the story, but what we have here is an actual fairly detailed step by step investigation and it's both a great thing and the biggest flaw of the book. The good thing is that, because so much time is spent in this world, a lot of details of the world are on display in all their crazy splendor. The flip side is that the story does get too meticulous and draggy. However, given the hints in the book and the jabs it has towards other same genre books that solve mysteries by sloppy writing and deus ex, you will not find it here.

3) The characters, just like the world, are hilarious. The Detective Guild is insane, Jack is a fun and complex character and Dumpty and his story is deep. One may think that given how crazy the premise of this book is, and that known Nursery characters are used, that little character development will be made. This is of course wrong, as they are complex and new takes on the traditional characters and having these cliches about the characters actually make it more interesting. Good characters are found here in a entertaining world.

I really enjoyed the book, I think anyone who wants to laugh and enjoys new takes on classic characters will enjoy the book a great deal.

Onward to the next book!

In a nutshell: this book is a suspenseful absurdist whodunit, featuring several brutal murders, suicide, decomposed corpses, money laundering schemes, biological weapons, corrupt police investigations, intradepartmental spying, biased reporting and highly illegal genetic experiments.

And it all stars with the gruesome untimely demise of a certain Humpty Stuyvesant Van Dumpty III, “minor baronet, ex-convict, and former millionaire philanthropist”, a gigolo and drunk and a con artist — and, of course, a very large egg.

n

Now let me explain and philosophize a bit.

Humans tend to pass on wisdom and entertainment to their smaller humans in a strange and terrifying fashion. Think of most fairytales and nursery rhymes. Almost in every single one there is at least a suggestion if not an overt description of murders or bodily harm or domestic violence or thievery or bullying or a slew of at least minor offenses. No wonder nursery rhymes lead to nursery crimes. And although most of the nursery rhymes in this book required me to engage in intense googling (on account of growing up outside the Anglosphere), I am quite well-versed in Brothers Grimm fairytales, that other gruesome childhood entertainment.

n  “Since the death by scalding of Mr. Wolff following his ill-fated climb down Little Pig C’s chimney, we at the Nursery Crime Division have been following inquiries that this was not an act of self-defense but a violent and premeditated murder by three individuals who, far from being the innocent victims of wolf-porcine crime, actually sought confrontation and then acted quite beyond what might be described as reasonable self-defense.”n

In the English town of Reading (of course) there is a Nursery Crime Division (NCD), dealing with the crimes that involve the persons of the nursery rhymes and fairytales (with them, of course, not quite realizing their folklore roles). NCD is somewhat akin to the red-headed stepchild of the Oxford and Berkshire Police Force, with the investigations done via meticulous police work deemed unworthy of inclusion in the highly sensationalist Amazing Crime Stories and investigator Jack Spratt deemed unworthy of joining the famed Most Worshipful Guild of Detectives.

n  “Modern policing isn’t just about catching criminals, Mary. It’s about good copy and ensuring that cases can be made into top-notch documentaries on the telly. Public approval is the all-important currency these days, and police budgets ebb and flow on the back of circulation and viewing figures.”n

Jack Spratt is not a flashy man. He just wants to do his job — “More notably, he arrested Rumplestiltskin over that spinning-straw-into-gold scam and was part of the team that captured the violently dangerous psychopath the Gingerbreadman” — and stay out of the spotlight, but he’s in a bit of trouble following the unsuccessful prosecution of three pigs for cruel and clearly premeditated murder of Mr. Wollf — and now the investigation into Humpty Dumpty’s possible murder is threatening to slip out of his hands because of very unpleasant corrupt departmental policies. At least he has a new detective on his team - Mary Mary, with a bit of contrariness, obviously.

n  “There is a limit to how many lost sheep you could track down, how many illegal straw-into-gold dens you could uncover, how many pied pipers arrived in town trying to extort money from the authorities over pest control and how often Mr. Punch would beat his wife and throw the baby downstairs.” n

n

I did not click very well with Fforde’s more well-known The Eyre Affair, so I did approach this one a tad warily — but it came with high praise from a trusted GR friend with impeccable taste in books, so I dove in. And I regret nothing.

It’s not a cutesy book, no. It’s absurdist satire that becomes a sharp, fresh and elegant hardboiled (pun intended, yes) police procedural certainly suitable for adults only. Don’t let the Nursery part fool ya. The humor is ever-present, but the slightly annoying puns of the first few chapters soon become an organic part of the story and, instead of relying on quick ‘gotcha!’ moments of child folklore hilarity the humor becomes darker, more steeped in satire, with frequently sinister and unsettling undertones. Once the story gets going, it stops relying on its nursery rhymes crutches and takes off with the characters and the investigation coming to life.

It’s exceedingly clever and delightfully complex and at times wonderfully silly. Luckily it steers clear of those traditional mystery stories pitfalls that it satirizes. It’s intricately plotted, and all the story threads come together in the end in the most satisfying way. The interplay between absurd and serious is excellently creative. And most importantly for me, it’s just my kind of humor - never really laugh-out-loud kind, but the one that makes you nod a bit in recognition and appreciation and occasionally almost embarrassingly chuckle.

Loved it. 4.5 eggshells stars.

n   “Well, did you hear about the time I saved Hansel and Gretel from being eaten alive by a witch?”
“No, I’m afraid I didn’t.”
“Or the time I rescued a hundred children from the Pied Piper of Hamelin?”
“Don’t… think so.”
“What about dealing with serial wife killer Bluebeard?”
“Only when Briggs mentioned it yesterday.”
“How about the time I closed down the illegal straw-into-gold den?”
“Not really.”
“Convicted Jill of aggravated assault against Jack?”
“Nope.”
“Stopped Mr. Punch throwing the baby downstairs?”
“Must have missed that one.”
“This is my point. I’ve worked hard at the NCD for twenty-six years, trying to bring justice to everyone within my jurisdiction. I deal with most things within the NCD, and I like to think I make a difference. Is any of that remembered? Not a bit of it. I kill a few tall guys and all of a sudden I’m nothing but a giant killer.”n

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Recommended by: carol.

I’d wanted to start this review with ”tongue in cheek" and was thinking the phrase is a dated expression – so I Googled it “it is ironic, slyly humorous; not meant to be taken seriously, however its sarcasm is subtle”. Take off the subtle and you're there as far as book description. For fans of British humor, wry, droll - especially entertaining for fans of mystery, specifically British mystery series that it alludes to often.

If you are prone to bone deep depression upon reminders that the general populace and media care more for rousing entertainment than truth and that all those in government positions must play to that desire then, this book may not be as amusing as advertised. The proliferation of nursery characters will aide in keeping the despairing reality at bay.

It is not an action packed novel nor is it a gripping mystery. It reads more as a witty stroll, easy to put down but also easy to pick up again.

I’d picked up Eyre Affair by this author mid last year and not yet read it - after reading this, I’ll crack the cover on Eyre soon.

What the hell did i just read?! Oh I see, there's two Fs on the cover. Oh right, this is going to be very silly indeed.

I sort of hate admitting how much I enjoy these stupid books. I thin I'm gong to listen to another one.