(Amy) I was iffy about even buying this book, I admit. I liked the first three or four Thursday Next books but was emphatically underwhelmed by First Among Sequels, and I never have been able to make up my mind as to whether I liked The Big Over Easy, the first in the Nursery Crime series of which this book is the second installment. I stumbled across this one on a bargain table, though, and decided to give it a go.

Jack Spratt, a Person of Dubious Reality (PRD for short) passing as a "real person" is the head of the Nursery Crime Division of the police force in Reading. Berkshire is apparently where story characters come to live, if they want to live somewhere other than their story, so rather a lot of very odd things occur there. At the moment, the Gingerbreadman, a psychotic mass-murdering cookie (or cake, there appears to be quite a fierce debate on the topic) has escaped from his asylum. Also, Goldilocks is missing. And Jack keeps getting distracted by busting porridge deals in the parking garage of the Robert Southey residential tower block (where most of the bears live).

In short, it's a busy week for the NCD.

It's very odd, this style of writing. The characters are nearly all, at least in name, stolen from elsewhere, and what's more, they know it. They also know they're in another story, and keep suggesting plot devices (by number) to the author. This may be the only instance of the written word breaking the fourth wall that I can recall encountering. The puns are sometimes a bit much for me to handle (even the characters roll their eyes, once), and he keeps dropping in sly little references to things that are both appealingly clever and, simultaneously, kind of annoying - like that kid in class who knew absolutely everything and wanted to make sure no one ever forgot it for a minute.

The thing is, I was that kid (rather than one of the people who used to beat her up, or at least fantasize about it), and it's still annoying. Maybe it's annoying because I was that kid? I really don't know. But something about the gestalt feeling of these books - and the later Thursday Next ones, too, after the new wore off the conceit - just rubs me that little bit the wrong way. But it's still very well done (I would imagine sustaining this level of surreality for this many books takes some serious effort), and I will probably carry on reading both series, feeling oddly conflicted between irritation and admiration the whole time.
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Fforde's storytelling is much like DCI Spratt in this book: "more or less sane" while brilliant the entire time. Who else could tie together champion cucumbers, a 7 foot tall maniacal Gingerbread Man, a car dealer making deals with Mephistopheles, and anthropomorphic bears into novel that begs to be read in as few sittings as possible? ( )

The Fourth Bear was surprisingly good. i didn't love the previous book in the series, The Big Over Easy, but this one felt like the Jasper Fforde i know and love. nice twists and great wordplay. the very best bits though were any scene with the Gingerbread Man! brilliant! ( )

I generally love Jasper Fforde's books but The Fourth Bear fell a little flat for me. But I've found that Fforde's Nursery Crime Division books not to be as entertaining as the Thursday Next books. ( )

Another fun romp through Nurseryland ( )