Like The Eyre Affair, I felt that Fforde was trying to find his pace with this book. I liked the sequel better. ( )

The Big Over Easy is a delightful crime mystery. The tale is set mainly in a world of Mother Goose nursery rhymes with some mythological references. It is the first book in a Nursery Crime series from Jasper Fforde.

The main character is Jack Spratt, head detective of the Nursery Crime Division in the town of Reading. Jack is a hardworking detective who doesn't get any respect, not even from his own peers. Jack's self-absorbed arch-nemesis is fellow detective Freidland Chymes. Apparently, Chymes will stoop to any level to shine, especially at the expense of Jack Spratt. There is unpleasant old history between the two, which never stopped simmering.

The mystery surrounds the murder of Reading's philanthropist, Humpty Dumpty. This isn't your usual version of Humpty Dumpty. He is a wealthy ovoid with problems, including a drinking one, who never meant a woman he didn't love...literally. The hosts of possible suspects, friends, business associates, ex-wives and lovers read as the list of Who's Who of Mother Goose. I love how Jasper portrays the nursery characters as real people with real issues, but somehow he manages to keep a tone of the whimsical.

My only criticism of The Big Over Easy is that towards the end, the plot twists were too many and the plot line became a bit overdrawn. Nevertheless, I do plan to read The Fourth Bear, the second book in the Nursery Crime series. Jasper Fforde has developed an unique fantasy world which can only get better with time. I look forward to following how this incredible fun and funny series matures. ( )

There are dead end jobs and then there’s The Dead End Job. Years ago, the city of Reading’s Nursery Crime (yes, you read that right) Division was headed by the a more successful sleuth than Jack Spratt. Unfortunately, he’s just lost one case too many (it turns out that those three murderous pigs were a jury favorite while the vegetarian wolf failed to overcome public stereotyping) and it looks like, not only his job but his whole division, is headed for early retirement. It’s not that Jack is a terrible detective; it’s just that crime, like all things, is political and he’s been edged out of some high profile cases leaving his career wedged between a rock and a hard place.

His livelihood hangs in the balance of one last chance when aging playboy, Humpty Dumpty is found dead after a rowdy night on the social scene. When the whole town becomes suspect, Jack is sent, head spinning, down a rabbit hole of red herrings and literal goose chases, causing the public to seriously question whether he should be in the field at all. As the clock ticks down the minutes on Jack’s ailing career, the absurd becomes normal and normal becomes completely obsolete.

This is a fantastic spoof of the detective story. There is a lot of great, dry British humor throughout, recalling Monty Python at many a turn. The plot is fast paced from the get go and never loses momentum. At times, the nursery rhyme and kid-lit word plays are put on a bit thick but some of the more subtle allusions to Grimm and Potter are well worth the cheese. And you needn’t worry about the nursery rhyme theme watering down the adult content. There is plenty of sex, wine and violence to go around. This is most certainly the dark side of the cradle.

I can’t believe I haven’t read anything else by Jasper Fforde. He is definitely on my list of authors to explore more. I think that there is another NCD book and I hope he’s working on others. ( )

Thought this would be funnier. On the other hand, it is what it claims to be - a traditional 'hard boiled' detective story, with characters taken from the pages of Mother Goose. How can you resist the temptation to see how he carries it off? ( )

I, for one, was absolutely shocked that the publisher refrained from calling The Big Over Easy a "hard-boiled detective story" anywhere either on the cover or the synopsis. Too easy, I guess, and our detective isn't hard-boiled at all anyway. Jack Spratt is a kindly family man who works in the Nursery Crime Division of the police force, but his superiors have been threatening to shut down the division due to a lack of interest and Jack's abysmal court record (one successful case every 15 months). But Jack gets one last chance when Humpty Dumpty, known for being a shadowy womanizer, is found dead one morning. And he didn't fall - he was shot.

Fforde gets to have his fun with allusions both to fairy tales and to the cliches of detective novels. Every chapter begins with a brief news article - "Butler Did Do It Shock" or "Red Herring Use to Be Controlled," for example - and those were my favorite parts. I think that Fforde's writing works best in tiny pieces, because the actual plot of the Big Over Easy often dragged, strangely joyless for such a delightful premise. Maybe it's my fault, I'm not much of a fan of mysteries, but the book didn't live up to the hopes I had for it as a whimsical fun read. ( )