Book Review: The Big Over Easy

Reviewed By: Catherine Thompson - RAM

The Big Over Easy     Amazon US HC Amazon UK PB Amazon UK HC Amazon Canada HC
Jasper Fforde
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Fantasy   Police Procedural
Series: A Nursery Crime
Hodder & Stoughton; $24.95 trade paperback; 398 pages

It’s Easter in Reading, a bad time for eggs, and no one can remember the last sunny day. Detective Inspector Jack Spratt of the Nursery Crime Division of the Reading Police Department and his sergeant Mary Mary are called to Grimm’s Road and a sad scene. Humpty Stuyesant van Dumpty III, philanthropist, ladykiller, minor baronet and all-around good egg, lies shattered at the bottom of his wall, where he often sat and engaged in deep thought and planning. It seems a clear case of suicide: Dumpty was prone to bouts of deep depression and salmonella. Yet DI Spratt isn’t so sure, and the more he digs, the more he turns up. What’s more, the famous Guild detective Friedland Chymes seems interested in the case… far more interested than he ought to be. Then there’s the giant beanstalk growing in Spratt’s mother’s back garden, the result of some magic beans. And on top of all this, the Jellyman is coming to town…

Obviously, Fforde is in fine fettle with this first instalment of a new series. The Big Over Easy has a convoluted yet strangely logical plot that never misses a step, though it might seem to on occasion. Fforde’s characters spring off the page here, as they do in the Thursday Next series. The author has a real gift for taking the most absurd notions and characters and bringing them to life.

Full of the most groan-inspiring situations (and including a reference to the Monty Python “Dead Parrot” sketch), The Big Over Easy will please every Fforde ffan on the planet. You’ll laugh until you hiccup.

Catherine Thompson - RAM

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Catherine Thompson - RAM