Jasper Fforde's newest book is an entertaining variant of the conceit he developed in his brilliant Eyre Affair and the subsequent adventures of Thursday Next, a literally literary detective. The Big Over Easy is a police procedural starring DI Jack Spratt of the (ahem) Reading constabulary. Spratt, who has a reputation as a giant killer, leads the investigation of the death of Humperdinck Jehoshaphat Aloysius Stuyvesant "Humpty" van Dumpty, a large egg, ladies' man, and investor. Assisted by DS Mary Mary (who doesn't seem too contrary), DI Spratt has to puzzle out whether he's dealing with accident, suicide, or murder. His path is made all the more tortuous by the inherent difficulties of Nursery Crime, but also by the machinations of Friedland Chymes, the world-famous detective whose ubiquitously published works and prominence in the Most Worshipful Guild of Detectives give him a powerful platform to impede his old colleague Spratt.
The Big Over Easy placet. It's a very funny lark, though the nursery-rhyme millieu gives it less depth and opportunities for wit than do Thursday Next's adventures. Still, Erasmus will pick up The Fourth Bear in July.
