The Big Over Easy: A Nursery Crime (A Nursery Crime Novel)

It takes a certain kind of literary genius to write a book this intricate. It was incredible how Jasper Fforde managed to weave all those nursery rhymes into a cohesive and witty narrative that didn’t feel silly or cringey. I loved it. I’m a big lover of nursery rhymes and to see them all play out in a whodunnit so well crafted was satisfying. I also really enjoyed all the newspaper articles at the end, it made the world building feel authentic and unique. The characters were mirrored after their nursery rhyme counterparts but they also had such powerful personalities aside from that. I think I enjoyed this one more than the Thursday Next book I just finished. This won’t be my last Jasper Fforde book I’m sure.

Jack Spratt is in charge of the Nursery Crimes Division of Reading, a division on the verge of losing its budget thanks to his recent inability to convict the Three Little Pigs of murdering the Big Bad Wolf. Then the smashed remains of Humpty Dumpty are found next to a wall and Jack knows it wasn't suicide. Now Jack must find the murderer, save his misfit division, and keep sleuthing celebrity, DCI Friedland Chimes, off the case. I absolutely loved The Big Over Easy. Thank you for the recommendation Polly! Each page is packed with nursery rhyme references but it never feels overwhelming as the passages are so matter-or-fact. It leaves you with this nagging feeling that these events actually happened. Fforde's dry, sarcastic humor kept my snickering and speeding through the novel. The Jack and the Beanstalk references killed me every time! My only complaint is the climax chapters were too fast paced for me in comparison to the rest of the story. That's it for me but I did take some time to read the few negative reviews of The Big Over Easy. My response to them is: do NOT read this book if you don't like murder mysteries. It's a murder mystery that mocks the elaborate and showy nature of modern mystery development. How can you expect to like that when you don't enjoy mystery novels?! Other reviewers complain that Fforde is trying too hard to be clever and only includes all the nursery rhyme information to make his readers feel smart when they get the references. You've got to be kidding me. Yes, the clever jokes and writing style may be too much for some but I highly doubt Fforde is more concerned with boosting the ego of his readers over the need to provide a good complex story. My only advice for such thinkers is that you should get over yourself and learn to enjoy the mechanics and discipline required to write a well balanced story. Fforde's jaw dropping ability to expertly meld so much research and detail in to one murder mystery has me wanting to be a better writer. I recommend The Big Over Easy to writers, as well as readers, as a prime example of a writing style that remains showing despite being so informational. Have you discovered the Nursery Crimes Division? It's time you should! Lindsay

Jasper Fforde made his name in the literary world with his very popular "Thursday Next" series of books following the eponymous heroine on a series of fantastically convoluted adventures in the world of metafiction. There are some connections between the characters in this novel and characters who appeared as minor figures in one of the "Thursday Next" books, but the "Nursery Crime" series is a distinct animal, albeit though it plays with many of the same metafictional themes. "The Big Over Easy", the first entry in the new series, is a wonderful little book.The basic story follows Jack Spratt, the head of Reading's Nursery Crime Division (NCD), who has worked for decades in what is considered a career dead-end (one step above the Ministry of Magic's Centaur Office, if you will), handling criminal acts involving nursery rhyme characters (he himself is one, though he doesn't know it, combining Jack Spratt, Jack the Giant-Killer, and Jack and the Beanstalk). He is joined by Mary Mary, a young Detective Sergeant who despairs at being put in the NCD, and really wants to work with Friedland Chymes, the celebrity detective whose adventures she grew up avidly following. The rest of the NCD crew includes a rookie assigned there for two months and then forgotten about, a hypochondriac, and an alien (yes, aliens have arrived, and, as documented in one of the fake newspaper clips included at the start of each chapter, were determined to not be very interesting). The case: the apparent slaying of Humpty Dumpty. The list of suspects is byzantine, and the plot has more contortions than the Gordian Knot, dragging in as incidental figures, among others, Prometheus the Fire-Bringer of Greek myth: he ends up renting a room in Jack's house and romancing his daughter Pandora (despite the 3980-year age difference).The plot is ultimately not that important; Fforde wittily simultanteously employs and satirizes the various tropes of the genre (identical twins, red herrings, culprits who are only introduced toward the end), and the real fun of the book is in the numerous details (though the final resolution is quite fun; the sheer number of plots going on is itself a sort of parody of the standard detective story). Fforde has a dry, very British sense of humour in the vein of Monty Python and such. His depictions of the novel's world are endlessly entertaining; the book is marvelous fun to read. Each chapter begins with a quote from various in-universe sources, mainly newspapers, highlighting and parodying various fictional tropes. The other major theme in the book is Fforde's exploration of the idea of the celebrity detective; Watson loyally documented and published Holmes' exploits, but here we see this concept run amok: publictation has become as, if not more, important than actuall solving the case for many detectives, Chymes most of all. They actively conduct their investigations in order to make them readable and dramatically interesting.Highly recommended.

Take a break from serious thrillers, dramatic booker winners and tread a path less trodden...it might just make you happier

If you want something different that’s well written with a quirky slant on a traditional story then I can totally recommend this book.

A spoof on the usual detective multi-layered plot where mythology trickles through the mundane, humdrum goings-on of normal and not-so-normal citizens of Reading, UK. Thoroughly enjoyable.

Ich bin ein Fforde-Fan, die Thursday-Next-Reihe ist grandios und Jennifer Strange ist fast noch besser, aber dieses Buch topt sie alle. Jede Seite ein Genuss und eine raffinierte Anspielung auf Kinder- und Kriminalgeschichten. Herrlich!Nach dem ersten Kapitel habe ich sofort die Fortsetzung "The Fourth Bear" bestellt. Ich kann kaum erwarten, dass sie endlich da ist.

Jasper Fforde has created a lot of fun drawing heavily on the great icons of British crime drama to create a spoof that combines a good mystery (who killed Humpty Dumpty!) with lots of fun.