The Big Over Easy

Author: Jasper Fforde
Published: July 21, 2005 (Viking)
Category: Mystery
Quote of Choice: He was particularly fearful that a giant mongoose was after him, was phobic about soufflé, meringue, and egg whisks, and had a recurring nightmare of being boiled alive for exactly three minutes.

I'm a huge fan of Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series, so I think my expectations were really high for The Big Over Easy, the first of a new series spinning off from TN. I started reading it last summer, but put it down and haven't picked it up again until this week. I think my initial reaction (last year) was one of disappointment because I was hoping for another TN.

We meet Jack Spratt, first seen in The Well of Lost Plots, when Thursday Next entered the Character Exchange Program to take the place of Mary Mary, Jack's sidekick. Thanks to Thursday's ingenuity, Jack's book was saved from destruction. It became a haven for overworked nursery rhyme characters, hence the strange mix of cop mystery and nursery rhymes.

In BOE, Jack heads the Nursery Crime Division in Reading, specializing in crimes relating to nursery characters. Apparently, Humpty Dumpty (full name: Humperdinck Jehoshaphat Aloysius Stuyvesant van Dumpty) was found dead below one of his walls. At first, they thought he killed himself, but the bullet hole was discovered when the pathologist put Humpty back together again.

Mary Mary (quite contrary) is a new transfer to Jack's team. She transferred to Reading in hopes of working with Friendland Chymes, a hotshot detective. At first I didn't like Mary because she kept hoping the NCD would be disbanded so she could try getting a post in Chymes's team. And then I disliked her even more when she agreed to act as a double agent, spying on Jack's investigation because Chymes wanted to steal the case so he could write a spectacular story in Amazing Crimes, a true crime magazine. It's a big deal for a detective to have his work published; it's such a big deal that solving crimes are secondary to creating a dramatic and entertaining story for the readership.

But of course, Mary realized that Chymes was a jerk and she actually belonged in the NCD (with a name like Mary Mary, of course she did!) and helped Jack solve this complicated crime. The ending was so satisfying, with a solution to the puzzle so multi-layered that I couldn't see how Amazing Crimes could pass up on the story.

Besides Humpty Dumpty, the cast of characters includes Wee Willie Winkie, Rapunzel, Old Mother Hubbard, and the Gingerbreadman (a psychopath killer reminding me of Hannibal Lechter when he's in captivity). It was tons of fun spotting the references to nursery rhymes throughout the book.

The second Nursery Crime book, The Fourth Bear, is coming out this summer. I can't wait!