Nursery Crimes
February 1, 2008 at 5:05 pm (Uncategorized) (21st century, meta-fiction)
The Big Over Easy and The Fourth Bear, both by Jasper Fforde
I’m putting these two together in one post because they are part of a series, after all, and I don’t have too much to say about them. I love Jasper Fforde’s books, and I think that The Big Over Easy is really one of his best. (I just think I’m more attached to Thursday Next as a character & so in love with the random book characters running about, especially when they act out of character.) I don’t think that the plot of The Fourth Bear was quite up to Fforde’s usual standards, but there were still very excellent moments.
The general premise of these books is that the main characters, Detective Inspector Jack Spratt and Detective Sergeant Mary Mary (who is, I feel, quite contrary) solve crimes that involve nursery rhyme characters. The mystery of the first book revolves around the death of Humpty Stuyvesant Van Dumpty III, who was found shattered at the bottom of a wall. Accident? Suicide? Murder? That’s what Jack & Mary have to find out. The second book mainly deals with the disappearance of Goldilocks after her visit to a certain cottage, but has quite a few other subplots on the go.
Two nitpicky details that bothered me a bit:
1. The lack of distinction between Nursery Rhyme characters and Fairy Tale characters – it bugged me that they both fell under the jurisdiction of of Nursery Crimes. I loved that Jack got to deal with Fairy Tale characters – but fairy tales are not the same as nursery rhymes.
2. The title of The Fourth Bear. I feel that it gave too much away and kind of ruined the plot.
Generally though, I would recommend these over the Thursday Next books to people I thought would like his style, but who may not have read some of the books that make Thursday’s exploits so hilarious.
The problem is that small pigs elicit a strong sympathetic reaction and large wolves don’t. There was a good case for self-defence, too — Mr Wolff was trespassing when he climbed down the chimney. It really all hinged on whether you believed that the pigs were boiling up a huge tureen of water to do their washing. And the jury did. In only eight minutes.
