Monday, March 06, 2006

Review - The Big Over Easy

I finished The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde, and I really enjoyed it. If you've read his Thursday Next series, you may find it difficult not to agonize over the connections between The Well of Lost Plots (in which most of these characters make an appearance), but it's an enjoyable debut to his new series, and I'll definitely read the second book, which comes out this summer.

The book opens up in Reading, England, where Mary Mary is assigned to work with Jack Spratt in the Nursery Crime Division, which investigates crimes involving gingerbread houses, giants, and most significantly for this book, the murder of a large egg. Humpty Dumpty has been murdered, and suspects abound. Jack must make his way through a tangled web of corporate greed, ex-wives, and mad scientists to solve the murder. To make things more difficult, Reading is a world where police not only have to solve crimes, they have to make them readable, and Jack has always been an outsider, devoted to justice rather than ratings. Fforde does a great job creating fun characters and an outrageous world for them to play in.

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