The Big Over Easy : A Nursery Crime, by Jasper Fforde

Retrieved from: LPLY
0670034231, 2005
Suggested by: I've read all the Thursday Next books
My Ratings: 9 Merit, 7 Interest, 7 Fun

I love the Thursday Next books. My understanding is that Fforde wrote this book first, but couldn't get it published till he had some success. I can see why publishers would balk, although it's a perfectly serviceable mystery. The problem comes in with the concept of noir-fiction-meets-talking-eggs.

Yes, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. In fact, it appears he was shot. Not only can the authorities not put him together again, they can't figure out where he was living, who his new wife was, why he was buying junk stocks, and why there was a dead (human) body in his shower. For several years. With the water running the whole time. By the way, that dead body is that of the son of a flutist who stole pigs and ran away. Think about it. First name Thom. Got it?

My issues with the plot is that it's far to formulaic: the bad guy is well-and-truly a Bad Guy and Jack (Spratt, the detective) is all nebbishy Good Guy. And the solution to the mystery is directly out of left field and seems to have nothing to do with nursery rhymes or common sense. Or reality, but then the whole book is sort of fantastic (in the sense of "fantasy fiction" as a genre) in that area. For instance, there is a giant genetically-engineered verruca--a word I had to look up, by the way, and which gave me a late laugh at Roald Dahl's characterizations.

So, if you are willing to suspend reality for a few hours while you read this, it's a fun book. If all this sounds too bizarre and silly, skip it. You'll hate it. I thought it was silly and funny and worthwhile on that level at least.