The Big Over Easy

Detectives Jack Spratt and Mary Mary of the Reading police, Nursery Crimes Division are called in to investigate the suspicious death of Humpty Dumpty, a large egg with a habit of sitting on walls. Spratt believes the case to be murder, but feels pressure to declare it an accident from his boss, who wants to shut down the Nursery Crimes Division and reallocate resources to flashier divisions that play better in the true crime magazines. Mary Mary is initially disinterested, hoping for a transfer to work with true crime darling Detective Friedland Chymes. But as she and Spratt go deeper down the rabbit hole of Dumpty’s suspect finances and many lovers, they also uncover evidence that Chymes isn't all he's cracked up to be.

There's lots show more here to enjoy, and it is very Jasper Fforde-y all the way through. Every name is a weird pun, including whole plot lines leading to a single pun pay-off. Even this far back in his oeuvre he continues to be incredibly prescient - he might not have predicted the death of magazines and rise of video, but the overt manipulation of crime investigation to better appeal to a true crime audience is damning. This was never going to be my favorite Fforde since I'm not really a detective story fan, it's way longer than it needs to be, and the ending of the investigation doesn't make much sense, but I still mostly enjoyed the read just for the weird Ffordian references and non-sequiturs. show less

When the shattered remains of Humpty Dumpty are found, Detective Inspector Jack Spratt from the Nursery Crime Division along with his new Detective Sergeant Mary Mary are called in to investigate. While it initially appears Humpty's death may have been accidental or suicide, as Jack and Mary dig deeper it appears it may have been murder most foul.

The first book in the Nursery Crime series is an utter delight. A well-crafted mystery with plenty of twists and turns is accompanied by Fforde's quirky sense of humour and plenty of puns and twists on both nursery rhymes and classic detective fiction. This series appears to exist in the same universe as Thursday Next (Lola Vavoom makes an appearance) but this series stands very well on its show more own. Recommended if you're in the mood for a funny, slightly weird mystery. show less

I wanted to read this because I like the idea of blending the mystery and fantasy genres. It's about a cop who investigates crimes involving fictional characters except that they live in the real world, or something. It was a lot heavier on the literary satire than I was expecting, an odd coincidence since I only just read Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen which is also a lot heavier on the literary satire than I was expecting. I think the 'Nursery Crime' series has a lot of potential but it is extremely vague on the 'rules' of this universe. It's not clear cut like something like Who Framed Roger Rabbit, where cartoon characters are alive and the cartoons we see them in are films. Here I have no idea if the fictional characters are show more actually stepped out of a book, or if the fiction is based on their real lives (this appears to be the case in some examples), or if both weirdly coexist at the same time but are unconnected (it seems to be mostly the latter, except that the fiction then influences how the characters act). I'm not sure I always 'got' it. The literary jokes are a bit over my head. I have no idea why one paragraph is riddled with spoonerisms. I think there is a joke about pointing out overused tropes in crime fiction and then the story utilising them, which I guess kind of makes the book critic proof. You can't complain about any of the plot contrivances because THAT'S THE POINT. Ha ha? I will say that the ending is rather abrupt given the stream of revelations/fake outs leading up to it. I'd have preferred an epilogue to cool down. I also thought that given how big a threat our main character's rival is, that this plot point was resolved far too easily. I'd read more though. show less

This book was very clever. I really enjoyed all the allusions to literature and nursery rhymes, especially the newspaper clips at the beginning of each chapter. But this book wasn't just clever in the way it told its story, the plot itself was very engaging. I'm not much of a mystery person mainly because I can't keep up and end up forgetting which character did what, so by the time the "whodunnit" is revealed, it doesn't mean as much to me. But in The Big Over Easy, the characterization was clear and solid, the plot points were memorable and fun, and I was engrossed. I can never figure out the murderer, so I was very excited that I figured it out right when Jack did. To me, that shows excellent storytelling on the part of the author. I show more kept up, but wasn't so far ahead that it was frustrating. A fun read! show less

Fun, but as with most everything I like, complicated.

The story begins with Mary Mary being shown around Reading Central Police Station by Superintendent Briggs. She needed a transfer, and Reading was home to the famous DCI Friedland Chymes, known across England for his exploits in Amazing Crime Stories. Mary had high hopes of being assigned to Chymes’ team, but is instead assigned to partner with Jack Spratt, of the Department of Nursery Crimes. You know–those crimes having to do with people (so to speak) from nursery stories. Unfortunately, Jack (and the department) is facing intense scrutiny after NCI’s failed efforts to charge the three pigs with the murder of Mr. Wolff. But there isn’t time to fret. The next morning, Jack show more and Mary are sent to Humpty Dumpty’s accidental death/suicide, only the more they learn, the more suspicious it gets.

If Fforde was content to stay with the nursery crime premise, the narrative would be relatively straightforward mystery, albeit with a fair number of detours and rest stops on the road to solving the murder. However, along the way we also meet the Jellyman, and the Sacred Gonga, the holy figure of the country of Splotvia, so it feels a little extra absurd. The first time through it was more than a bit a puzzle, and I breezed over those parts. I think they might be a sort of indirect commentary on the Dalai Lama and Tibet, but I could be wrong. Regardless, it’s more a silly aside than the main focus of the story, which is the Humpty murder.

“Mrs. Singh rang with some figures. They can’t be certain, as so much of Humpty’s albumen was washed away by the rain, but indications show he was twenty-six times the legal limit for driving. Even so, she reckons he would still have been conscious–it’s something to do with his coefficient of volume.”
‘That’s one seriously pickled egg,’ murmured Jack.”

The humor is fun, but because it is quite present, it can interfere with the momentum of the mystery. Much like watching Monty Python, at a certain point, it’s just a bit much. The silliness –there’s an alien whose native tongue is binary, as in 0100111– undermining the tension of the plot, and it isn’t really until the final fifty pages that it feels quite exciting. That’s not to say it’s bad, but that this isn’t the story to keep you up after bedtime. (Yay!) But the ending is exceedingly clever, and it’s quite unbelievable that Fforde was able to make all the elements come together.

“‘Everything,’ said the biohazard agent, with the buoyant tone of someone who has just been given a lot of power and is keen to try it out.”

The writing is clever. There’s a lot of humanity in the characters, even Humpty. Mary was the most problematic for me–being quite contrary and all–until she changes her outlook. It’s the sort of book that works best if you are able to hold absurdity in your mind and yet still take the mystery seriously, as Jack does. People die, even nursery rhyme characters, and much like any honest detective, Jack is determined to do right by the victim, as well as protect the public. It’s an interesting mood mash-up that won’t work for everyone, but for those who like that sort of thing, it should work very well.

Four and a half stars, rounding up because it was worth adding to the library. show less

Humpy Dumpty's dead. Whodunit?

If you're thinking, "erm...he fell?" then you need to read this book. Although he was basically a good guy, businessman Humpty Stuyvesant Van Dumpty III had made a few enemies and was last seen, horribly drunk, boasting about his ability to summon up rather a large sum of money...
What's it about?

This is the first installment in genre-crossing Jasper Fforde's 'Nursery Crimes' series, and so DI Jack Spratt, head of the Nursery Crimes Division of Reading Police Department, is assigned to investigate Humpty's fall and subsequent death. Was he pushed or did his dangerous habit of sitting, often drunkenly, atop tall walls (despite being an egg and therefore rather vulnerable to heights and concrete) finally do show more him in?

Jack Spratt is determined to find out, but he's under rather a lot of pressure: if the case proves to be nothing, his department will be closed due to his poor prosecution rate (only last week three pigs got off scot-free despite boiling Mr Wolf alive in what was clearly a premeditated act); if the case is something, local super-cop DCI Friedland Chymes wants it, and he won't take no for an answer.

-- What's it like? --

Brilliant. Amusing, innovative, surreal and frequently childish. The puns and wordplay are groan worthy, but there's also a brilliant strain of literary detection running through it all. It really is quite a wonderful mixture of ideas and characters, including key nursery rhyme details (When DS Mary Mary learns that Jack Spratt's wife loved fat she comments: 'Isn't that very unhealthy?' and is informed 'Very. She died.') and more random details (Mary is repeatedly advised that being from Basingstoke is 'nothing to be ashamed of').

Set in Reading, Fforde cleverly mixs existing places with fictitious ones to create an enviroment in which anthropmorhised bears and illegal spinning-straw-into-gold dens are just a part of ordinary life for the town's inhabitants. In what other world could Humpty possibly be considered a sex object?

Just like his Thursday Next series, Fforde creates a world in which everyone reads and cares about literature, so there's plenty of fun to be had spotting references to other texts. Oh and Prometheus becomes his lodger. Because. Y'know. Why not? After all, he's got nowhere more interesting to go since no country dares grant him citizenship and risk the wrath of Zeus, who is not happy that the whole infinite-liver-pecking-out punishment has been curtailed. It's this blending of myth and reality that makes the tale so wonderfully fun.

-- What's to like? --

Fforde depicts a world in which accurately resolving a crime is less important than writing it up in best selling magazine 'Amazing Crime Stories' and your circulation figures mean more to your superiors than your ethics. (At one point a detective reflects that another detective would have done better to release one captured gang member from the group in order to recapture him in a day or two and so stretch out the headlines.) From this central premise many delightfully logical but ridiculous situations arise. Some of the best examples can be found at the start of each chapter, where Fforde treats readers to 'extracts' from fictional newspapers and the like.

For instance:

'Plans for a National Genetic Database could be shelved if the Guild of Detectives gets their way, it has emerged. 'Cerebrally-based deduction of perpetrators has fallen over the years,' wrote Guild member Lord Peter Flimsey in a leaked document to the Home Office funding committee, 'and we all have a duty to protect the traditional detecting industry against further damaging loss.' MPs were said to be 'sympathetic'...'

And this:

'Blatant red herring and overused narrative blind alleys could land a detective in hot water if the Limited Narrative Misdirection Bill becomes law later this year....'

And just wait 'til Jack gets given some beans...

-- Final thoughts --

I only finished reading this a couple of weeks ago and I'm already struggling to recall who did for Humpty in the end (although, upon reflection, there's a really good reason why!) but this isn't a criticism. After all, the sooner I forget it all the sooner I can have the joy of reading it again!

Like most books of this nature, it might be best digested in small chunks rather than devoured in one sitting; it is genuinely funny and enjoyable throughout, but I found I was best able to appreciate the madcap nature of it all in small doses.

A dazzling mix of nursery rhyme nonsense, crime detecting, pun creating and sheer fun. Recommended. show less

I quite enjoyed this for the most part -- a good mix of mystery, humor, and satire -- but I really didn't know what to make of the end. I'm toying with two possibilities. The first is that Fford just lost control of this story at the end and, for whatever reason, tacked on a wildly inappropriate ending that would have been more appropriate in a 1950s B-movie than in a mystery novel. The second is that the end was done deliberately to tweak the easy predictability that permeates a lot of the genre. I'd like to think it was the second, but you know, I don't know that it was.