The Big Over Easy

Jack, the head of the Nursery Crime Division, investigates the untimely demise of Humpty Van Dumpty, a hard-living egg. His adversary, a savvy political climber and a member of the prestigious Guild of Detectives, schemes to take over the case, while Jack and his sergeant (Mary Mary) wade through too many suspects, several confessions, and loose ends that resist tying up.

The Nursery Crime Division is not quite in the same universe as Thursday Next — there's no time travel or book travel (although Lola Vavoom is in both universes). There is a Christ-like head of state called the Jellyman, and nursery rhyme characters exist as normal people, albeit somewhat circumscribed by their literary details (e.g. Jack Spratt's wife, who eats no show more lean, ultimately dies of heart disease).

If the Thursday Next series is a mad caper, the Nursery Crimes series jumps off the ledge into just pain madness. I don't think I've ever read a mystery with so many twists and turns. Even with so much plot to describe, Fforde still manages to write in material that doesn't relate at all to the titular mystery (e.g. Prometheus), which both deepens your connection to this bizarre created world, and contributes to your sense that the entire endeavor is utter nonsense. show less

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

Detective Jack Spratt heads the somewhat failing Nursery Crimes Division of the Reading Police Department. Shortly after being assigned Mary Mary as his new partner, Spratt and his team are faced with solving the suspicious death of one Humperdink "Humpty" Dumpty. In a world where police departments get much of their funding from royalties earned publishing the gripping tales of their cases in Amazing Crimes magazine, Friedland Chymes is king, and he wants the Humpty case. Spratt's boss gives him until the budgetary committee meeting to solve the case, so it's a race against time and the laughs are nonstop. This is, quite simply, one of the funniest novels I've ever read. I listened to it on audio, read by the immensely talented Simon show more Prebble, and on many occasions I laughed out loud or even repeated some of the funnier lines. They come at you from all sides, from hilarious takes on famous nursery rhyme characters to witty business names (my favorite newspaper name was The Daily Eyestrain) to truly bizarre plot twists. Highly recommended, but you might want to brush up on your nursery rhymes first so you can catch more of the jokes. Trust me, you'll enjoy it just that much more. show less

The Big Over Easy is Fforde's departure from the Thursday Next series. In
this one, he creates another world--the one of Reading, England and the
Nursery Crimes division.

Sergeant Mary Mary is new to the Nursery Crimes Division in Reading. It is
her dream to become the sidekick of flashy Detective Friedland Chymes, hero
of many crime-solving capers in Amazing Crime Stories. (You see, police
departments base most of their funding on their ratings in that magazine.)
Instead, she is coupled with Detective Inspector Jack Spratt, family man and
head of the NCD. Sergeant Mary Mary knows that she's just been posted to the
back of beyond. The only thing DI Spratt is known for is killing giants--not
a ratings winner in Amazing Crime Stories.

However, it's show more Easter and a bad one for Humpty Dumpty, minor baronet, lover
of women, ex-convict, and former millionaire philanthropist. He's found
shattered to death beneath a wall in a shabby area of town. All the brittle
pieces sitting in the morgue point to foul play, and it's up to DI Spratt
and Sergeant Mary to find out whodunit.

I loved this book. Fforde had a field day with the mystery genre. For anyone
who can't quite make the leap into the world of Thursday Next, The Big Over
Easy just might suit them better. There are no exotic pets, no dirigibles in
the sky, no leaping into books. Just a mystery amongst the nursery rhyme
characters of their youth (well, mine anyway). I even found a new setting
for my next "dinner"--Castle Spongg, a neosurrealistic mansion that makes
Hill House look like a 1950s ranch house on Main Street, USA.

In Fforde's The Big Over Easy dedication, we get a clue to one of the people
responsible for his imagination: "For my brother Mathew, whose love of the
absurd--and the profound--enlightened my childhood." Mathew sounds like my
kind of brother.

The next book in the Nursery Crimes series will be coming out in 2006--The
Fourth Bear. I'll be in line! 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

After I got over the shock of discovering that it wasn't a Tuesday Next volume I really enjoyed this book.

This is more of a police procedural novel, with aliens, nursery story characters, exiled gods and a detective just made for TV. The detective is Jack Spratt and he heads up the under-funded Nursery Crime Division, and is trying hard to avoid the closure of the division and his own redundancy. The key to success isn't your clear up rate but how good the detective plot is, and a write up in Amazing Crime Stories or Sleuth Illustrated the goal of all detectives - Superintendent Briggs, explains to new recruit Mary Mary :

'The thing is,' interrupted Briggs, 'that the Oxford & Berkshire Constabulary prides itself on producing some of the show more most readable detectives in the country.' He walked over to the window and looked out at the rain striking the glass. 'Modern policing isn't just about catching criminals, Mary. It's about good copy and ensuring that cases can be made into top-notch documentaries on the telly. Public approval is the all-important currency these days, and police budgets ebb and flow on the back of circulation and viewing figures.'

Meanwhile, Jack is battling his arch-nemesis, the high-flying Friedland Chymes, who wants Jack's destruction and wants his latest case - the murder of Humpty Dumpty. This book is packed with jokes, I liked the way Jack compulsively acts (or is acted on) as a nursery story character, he sells his mother's valuable Stubbs, a painting of a cow, for magic beans; his first wife died, as she could eat no lean; and he has trouble with giants, whom he accidentally kills. He is given the sobriquet 'Giant Killer' by the press, although as he is at pains to point out, two of them were not technically giants - just very tall.

His home life is filled with entertaining stepchildren and a new lodger, a god, given political asylum, Jack has just turned up with him :

'Welcome, Mr Prometheus.'
'Thank you.' The Titan smiled. 'And it's just "Prometheus".'
Madeleine put the kettle on and continued: 'It's not often I have a political refugee in my house. I've followed your struggle with interest. Perhaps we can talk about Ancient Greece a little later?'
Prometheus gave another short bow and smiled politely. 'Well,' he began,'"Ancient Greece" is a little bit of a misnomer, really;
when I was there it was simply a collection of city-states - Athens, Sparta, Thebes, Delphi and so forth... ...Your idea of modern Greece really only began with Diocletian's division in 286. I can tell you a bit about harpies, Ben. And Megan — I'd very much like to be your show and tell. Jack, I'm also pretty good with torque settings on Allegro wheel bearings.'
'Can you cook?' asked Madeleine.
'I love to cook. Do you all like Mediterranean?'

They stared at him, awe-struck. He was over four thousand years old and so he knew almost everything there was to know about everything. Truly, he was the tenant of the gods.

I liked this book a lot. 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