The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde - Book Review

Jasper Fforde is the author of the bestselling Thursday Next series, and now, in this book, he starts a new series, Nursery Crime. If you haven’t read his Thursday Next series, and love the old classics, you’ll love that series. It starts with The Eyre Affair and I highly recommend it! I was able to really enjoy it even though I haven’t read all of the classics he references in the series (although I have read a pretty big chunk of them).

If you aren’t a fan of the classics, but still enjoy literary humor, then Ffordes new series is perfect for you. Its based in the same alternate England as his Thursday Next series, but instead of meeting characters from classics like Jane Eyre, we get to meet people from the nursery rhymes we grew up with.

Jack Spratt is the head of the Nursery Crime Division in Reading, England. If the crime involves a nursery rhyme, he’s the one who investigates it, along with his understaffed motley crew of a department. Now you might think that these type of crimes would be rare, but all your old favorites have lives in the real world, although they usually don’t realize that they are from nursery rhymes. In fact neither Jack Spratt himself, nor his new partner Mary Mary, realize that they have their origins in nursery rhymes, despite the fact that they investigate them.

In The Big Over Easy Jack Spratt and Mary Mary are called on to solve the murder of Humpty Dumpty. Mary is new to the Nursery Crime Division (NCD) and it’s all still a bit strange to her, and she couldn’t have had that much stranger of a first case to tackle! Not that it seems that way at first, when you find an egg shattered at the base of a wall the apparent cause of death would seem to be death by falling right? Then they find the bullet hole. Then, over the course of the investigation, multiple people come forward to confess, each convinced they really did it, and things just get stranger from there.

I give this book 5 out of 5 cups of coffee. I was laughing the whole way through and I love how Fforde brings our old friends from nursery rhymes to life, and gives them a whole new twist! It was also fun to see some characters from his other series get mentioned and one even plays a pivotal part. I can hardly wait to read the next book!

Another Fine Myth - Book Review

“Take the Universe as it is. Add devils, dragons, and magic. Then stand back… Skeeve was a magician’s apprentice, until an assasin hired by an ancient enemy struck and his master was dead. Skeeve suddenly found himself alone with Aahz, a purple-tongued demon the old magician had summoned from another dimension as a practical joke just before he was killed. Aahz had lost his powers. Skeeve had just lost his job. So, together, they set out through a universe populated by Deveels, Imps, dragons, unicorns, and more, look for a way to get even…” (from inner book jacket)

I would actually disagree with the book jacket, they aren’t really out to get even exactly. Skeeve is terrified when he first meets Aahz. After all, he has just seen his master killed by assassins, and Aahz is the first demon he’s met. Aahz quickly sets the record straight, he’s not some scary monster, he’s merely a magician from another dimension, and he had a deal with Skeeve’s master that they could summon each other to scare the unwary. Unfortunately his magic’s gone for unknown reasons (they suspect Skeeve’s master did something) but he still decides to take Skeeve on as an apprentice.

They soon discover that the person behind the murder of Skeeve’s master is someone that Aahz has grappled with before, and that he wants to take over not just Skeeve’s dimension, but eventually, all of them. That’s why I say they aren’t really getting even (which the book jacket said) but on a quest to save everyone from this crazy magician, and to get Skeeve’s powers back if possible. Along the way Skeeve begins to take off in leaps and bounds as a magician, they use trickery and magic to fool first a demon hunter and then some demon assassins, and Skeeve gets his first taste of inter-dimensional travel.

I give this book 4 out of 5 cups of coffee, it is a great read, and the only thing that’s holding it back from that five is that while I loved this book I’ve read others recently that inspired me more to say “Go buy it, now!” However, if you love fantasy, and like some good humor mixed in, definitely put it on your to-read list!

~ Ruthie ~