I really liked the idea of this book. I love fairy tale retelling and gritty reboots. However, the story just wasn't there. The author seemed so wrapped up in his cleverness that he forgot to make sure there was a solid story in there to help show off his cleverness. Instead we're treated to references galore, silly little side stories and very little of substance.

The world itself was just so random at times that it drove me nuts. I'm still trying to figure out how betting on fights in plays would ever make sense in any world.

In the end I got tired of waiting for the story to emerge and moved on to a different book.

I adored this book. So clever and funny, and I'm sure I missed quite a few references, so I bet it is even funnier than I realize. This is an impressive intermingling of a mystery novel and a nursery rhyme universe. it follows Detective Inspector Jack Spratt along with his partner, Mary Mary, as they take on the death of Humpty Dumpty, who was found broken up at the bottom of a wall (no surprise). And perhaps even more interesting than them sifting through a sea of nursery rhyme characters to solve the mystery, is the fact that in this world crime has been reduced to literary entertainment. It is no longer about the detailed solving of crimes, but about who can solve a crime with the most flourish and outlandish methods and land on the cover of Amazing Crimes magazine. It's not just an interesting premise for this story, but a real statement about modern media and the tendency to reduce crime to mindless entertainment. Again, just a really fun and creative novel.

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 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!

This is one of the best, funniest books I have ever read, and I'm not exaggerating! Jasper Fforde has brought fairy tales to life, and the world is so much better with them in it! I recommend this book for absolutely everyone; it's a fairy-tale, but one written for totally, smart serious people.