What do you think?
Rate this book
Nursery Crime #2
The Fourth Bear
A second installment of the satirical Nursery Crime series that began with The Big Over Easy finds Jack Spratt, having been demoted for his poor judgment during the Mr. Bun poisoning, pursuing leads about the disappearance of star reporter "Goldy" Hatchett, whose case is bizarrely related to the Gingerbreadman serial killer investigation. 50,000 first printing.
382 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2006
305 people are currently reading
7570 people want to read
About the author
Jasper Fforde
51 books13k followersFforde began his career in the film industry, and for nineteen years held a variety of posts on such movies as Goldeneye, The Mask of Zorro and Entrapment. Secretly harbouring a desire to tell his own stories rather than help other people tell their's, Jasper started writing in 1988, and spent eleven years secretly writing novel after novel as he strove to find a style of his own that was a no-mans-land somewhere between the warring factions of Literary and Absurd.
After receiving 76 rejection letters from publishers, Jasper's first novel The Eyre Affair was taken on by Hodder & Stoughton and published in July 2001. Set in 1985 in a world that is similar to our own, but with a few crucial - and bizarre - differences (Wales is a socialist republic, the Crimean War is still ongoing and the most popular pets are home-cloned dodos), The Eyre Affair introduces literary detective named 'Thursday Next'. Thursday's job includes spotting forgeries of Shakespeare's lost plays, mending holes in narrative plot lines, and rescuing characters who have been kidnapped from literary masterpieces.
Luckily for Jasper, the novel garnered dozens of effusive reviews, and received high praise from the press, from booksellers and readers throughout the UK. In the US The Eyre Affair was also an instant hit, entering the New York Times Bestseller List in its first week of publication.
Since then, Jasper has added another six to the Thursday Next series and has also begun a second series that he calls 'Nursery Crime', featuring Jack Spratt of The Nursery Crime Division. In the first book, 'The Big Over Easy', Humpty Dumpty is the victim in a whodunnit, and in the second, 'The Fourth Bear', the Three Bear's connection to Goldilocks disappearance can finally be revealed.
In January 2010 Fforde published 'Shades of Grey', in which a fragmented society struggle to survive in a colour-obsessed post-apocalyptic landscape.
His latest series is for Young Adults and include 'The Last Dragonslayer' (2010), 'Song of the Quarkbeast' (2011) and 'The Eye of Zoltar' (2013). All the books centre around Jennifer Strange, who manages a company of magicians named 'Kazam', and her attempts to keep the noble arts from the clutches of big business and property tycoons.
Jasper's 14th Book, 'Early Riser', a thriller set in a world in which humans have always hibernated, is due out in the UK in August 2018, and in the US in 2019.
Fforde failed his Welsh Nationality Test by erroneously identifying Gavin Henson as a TV chef, but continues to live and work in his adopted nation despite this setback. He has a Welsh wife, two welsh daughters and a welsh dog, who is mad but not because he's Welsh. He has a passion for movies, photographs, and aviation. (Jasper, not the dog)
Series:
* Thursday Next
* Nursery Crime
* Shades of Grey
After receiving 76 rejection letters from publishers, Jasper's first novel The Eyre Affair was taken on by Hodder & Stoughton and published in July 2001. Set in 1985 in a world that is similar to our own, but with a few crucial - and bizarre - differences (Wales is a socialist republic, the Crimean War is still ongoing and the most popular pets are home-cloned dodos), The Eyre Affair introduces literary detective named 'Thursday Next'. Thursday's job includes spotting forgeries of Shakespeare's lost plays, mending holes in narrative plot lines, and rescuing characters who have been kidnapped from literary masterpieces.
Luckily for Jasper, the novel garnered dozens of effusive reviews, and received high praise from the press, from booksellers and readers throughout the UK. In the US The Eyre Affair was also an instant hit, entering the New York Times Bestseller List in its first week of publication.
Since then, Jasper has added another six to the Thursday Next series and has also begun a second series that he calls 'Nursery Crime', featuring Jack Spratt of The Nursery Crime Division. In the first book, 'The Big Over Easy', Humpty Dumpty is the victim in a whodunnit, and in the second, 'The Fourth Bear', the Three Bear's connection to Goldilocks disappearance can finally be revealed.
In January 2010 Fforde published 'Shades of Grey', in which a fragmented society struggle to survive in a colour-obsessed post-apocalyptic landscape.
His latest series is for Young Adults and include 'The Last Dragonslayer' (2010), 'Song of the Quarkbeast' (2011) and 'The Eye of Zoltar' (2013). All the books centre around Jennifer Strange, who manages a company of magicians named 'Kazam', and her attempts to keep the noble arts from the clutches of big business and property tycoons.
Jasper's 14th Book, 'Early Riser', a thriller set in a world in which humans have always hibernated, is due out in the UK in August 2018, and in the US in 2019.
Fforde failed his Welsh Nationality Test by erroneously identifying Gavin Henson as a TV chef, but continues to live and work in his adopted nation despite this setback. He has a Welsh wife, two welsh daughters and a welsh dog, who is mad but not because he's Welsh. He has a passion for movies, photographs, and aviation. (Jasper, not the dog)
Series:
* Thursday Next
* Nursery Crime
* Shades of Grey
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,426 reviews
May 3, 2020
Once again, The Fourth Bear makes the personal library cut. Oh, don't get me wrong; it's as meandering as bumblebee at the height of spring, but somehow Fforde manages to pull it together for a smashing finale.
The beginning is slow and feels more like a set of loosely connected stories instead of the noir mystery it is modeled after. After starting the reader off with Henny Hatchett, a reporter who is also known as 'Goldilocks,' investigating some prizewinning cucumbers, and a successful capture of the Scissor-man by Detective Inspector Jack Spratt's team, we jump to a bust on a porridge-dealing anthropomorphized bear. After a stop car-shopping with Jack, it's on to St. Cerebellum's where a team is discussing the heinous crimes of the Gingerbread Man. You can see where this tends to get a little choppy. As if that wasn't enough, aliens have landed, and they are surprisingly boring, notwithstanding their tendency to lapse into binary. Eventually--and by 'eventually,' I mean probably halfway into the book--the joint plots of the missing Goldilocks and the escaped Gingerbread Man start to take shape.
The characters are fun, and for those who argue whether or not they are tropes, well, that's the whole premise of the Nursery Crime Division, isn't it? I mean, besides being crimes committed by literary--literally--people, the question is, can they step outside how they are written? But these do, most certainly, with all of them behaving in interesting and complicated ways, even Punch and Judy.
All that said, the fact that it's a little more about cleverness and a little less about plot means I was able to take my time reading until probably halfway or more. As my friend Daniel noted, there's a lot that is excess in this book, although some of it is enjoyable excess, such as when Mary and the alien Ashley go on a date.
There's a lot that made me smile, including whether or not Gingerbread was a cake or a cookie (although wouldn't a biscuit also be possible?) and an absent Professor McGuffin. Mostly it was the set-ups that has me smiling, such as the one-liners at a party at a hotel called Deja Vu, or the complete daffy scene when Mary meets an alien couple. Fforde is also quite free about breaking the fourth wall. A small example:
"Vinnie kicked the bike into life, revved the engine, clonked it into first and tore off up the road with a screech of tire.
'You know what this means? said Jack as Vinnie Craps vanished from view around a bend in the road.
'That the singular 'screech of tire' looks and sounds wrong even if it's quite correct?'"
I don't particularly mind those moments, and these don't happen as nearly as often as they do in a Thursday Next book, but it's something to keep in mind if excessive cleverness annoys.
I still don't think I understood the final solution, but honestly, not sure it matters. I love the two page character update after the book ends (a sort of 'what are they doing now'). There's a couple of faux posters at the end as well, include one for a supposed third book called 'The Tortoise and the Hare' that looks to be never forthcoming. Overall, fun if you have the patience and attention.
The beginning is slow and feels more like a set of loosely connected stories instead of the noir mystery it is modeled after. After starting the reader off with Henny Hatchett, a reporter who is also known as 'Goldilocks,' investigating some prizewinning cucumbers, and a successful capture of the Scissor-man by Detective Inspector Jack Spratt's team, we jump to a bust on a porridge-dealing anthropomorphized bear. After a stop car-shopping with Jack, it's on to St. Cerebellum's where a team is discussing the heinous crimes of the Gingerbread Man. You can see where this tends to get a little choppy. As if that wasn't enough, aliens have landed, and they are surprisingly boring, notwithstanding their tendency to lapse into binary. Eventually--and by 'eventually,' I mean probably halfway into the book--the joint plots of the missing Goldilocks and the escaped Gingerbread Man start to take shape.
The characters are fun, and for those who argue whether or not they are tropes, well, that's the whole premise of the Nursery Crime Division, isn't it? I mean, besides being crimes committed by literary--literally--people, the question is, can they step outside how they are written? But these do, most certainly, with all of them behaving in interesting and complicated ways, even Punch and Judy.
All that said, the fact that it's a little more about cleverness and a little less about plot means I was able to take my time reading until probably halfway or more. As my friend Daniel noted, there's a lot that is excess in this book, although some of it is enjoyable excess, such as when Mary and the alien Ashley go on a date.
There's a lot that made me smile, including whether or not Gingerbread was a cake or a cookie (although wouldn't a biscuit also be possible?) and an absent Professor McGuffin. Mostly it was the set-ups that has me smiling, such as the one-liners at a party at a hotel called Deja Vu, or the complete daffy scene when Mary meets an alien couple. Fforde is also quite free about breaking the fourth wall. A small example:
"Vinnie kicked the bike into life, revved the engine, clonked it into first and tore off up the road with a screech of tire.
'You know what this means? said Jack as Vinnie Craps vanished from view around a bend in the road.
'That the singular 'screech of tire' looks and sounds wrong even if it's quite correct?'"
I don't particularly mind those moments, and these don't happen as nearly as often as they do in a Thursday Next book, but it's something to keep in mind if excessive cleverness annoys.
I still don't think I understood the final solution, but honestly, not sure it matters. I love the two page character update after the book ends (a sort of 'what are they doing now'). There's a couple of faux posters at the end as well, include one for a supposed third book called 'The Tortoise and the Hare' that looks to be never forthcoming. Overall, fun if you have the patience and attention.
August 30, 2019
I am happily meandering through my book shelves pulling out old favourites from the past and of course anything by Jasper Fforde has to be a favourite! The Fourth Bear is one of his best.
It is a great pity that the Nursery Crime series never went any further. (There was a third book planned but so very long ago I cannot see it materialising.) I love the clever way Fforde brings in our favourite nursery rhyme characters - plus the occasional alien and a Greek god - houses them all in Reading and makes a brilliant story around them.
In The Fourth Bear the Gingerbread Man is a seven foot tall, homicidal maniac, Jack Sprat(t) is Detective Chief Inspector, Nursery Crimes Division, Reading Police Department and Goldilocks has disappeared in the woods after visiting some bears. The author brings all of his brilliant humour and endless puns to the mix and it is totally entertaining.
All good fun. If I can find a few more spare moments I might reread one of his Thursday Next series too. I have fond memories of the Dodo.
It is a great pity that the Nursery Crime series never went any further. (There was a third book planned but so very long ago I cannot see it materialising.) I love the clever way Fforde brings in our favourite nursery rhyme characters - plus the occasional alien and a Greek god - houses them all in Reading and makes a brilliant story around them.
In The Fourth Bear the Gingerbread Man is a seven foot tall, homicidal maniac, Jack Sprat(t) is Detective Chief Inspector, Nursery Crimes Division, Reading Police Department and Goldilocks has disappeared in the woods after visiting some bears. The author brings all of his brilliant humour and endless puns to the mix and it is totally entertaining.
All good fun. If I can find a few more spare moments I might reread one of his Thursday Next series too. I have fond memories of the Dodo.
May 19, 2014
Nursery Crime Division head, Jack Spratt, has a Gingerbreadman on the loose. And a missing reporter named Goldilocks. And Punch and Judy just moved in next door, raising the noise level in the neighbourhood considerably.
Note: The rest of this review has been withdrawn due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.
In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook
Note: The rest of this review has been withdrawn due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.
In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook
September 7, 2008
So far, this is my favorite of the Jasper Fforde books. The wordplay and puns just keep on coming, but I also enjoyed the meta-fictional elements going on here. Storybook characters who know they're storybook characters (or, in Fforde's parlance, Persons of Dubious Reality), plot devices named and numbered, even comments on flat characters (the sadness of knowing you aren't fully developed) and jokes that are too much of a stretch.
As far as the Nursery Crimes go, this one is a beauty: the Gingerbreadman (a serial killer who escapes from a mental institution--seven feet tall and yes, made out of gingerbread), a missing Goldilocks, and even the less nursery rhyme more metaphorically fictional character of Dorian Gray all make an appearance. Oh, and so do Punch and Judy.
The novel feels more assured than The Big Over Easy too. Jack Spratt is a more natural (and interesting) main character than Mary Mary, and the story just keeps moving at a better clip. Either that or I'm just getting used to Fforde's writing style. At any rate, I really enjoyed this, and I'm a little sad that the next NCD novel won't be out for at least a year. Still, I can understand an author wanting to do other things with his time besides catering to my whims. Not even I want to cater to my whims all the time, and I'm me. Still, this has re-convinced me to keep going with the Fforde books. His streak for silliness and the unexpected just keeps me coming back for more.
As far as the Nursery Crimes go, this one is a beauty: the Gingerbreadman (a serial killer who escapes from a mental institution--seven feet tall and yes, made out of gingerbread), a missing Goldilocks, and even the less nursery rhyme more metaphorically fictional character of Dorian Gray all make an appearance. Oh, and so do Punch and Judy.
The novel feels more assured than The Big Over Easy too. Jack Spratt is a more natural (and interesting) main character than Mary Mary, and the story just keeps moving at a better clip. Either that or I'm just getting used to Fforde's writing style. At any rate, I really enjoyed this, and I'm a little sad that the next NCD novel won't be out for at least a year. Still, I can understand an author wanting to do other things with his time besides catering to my whims. Not even I want to cater to my whims all the time, and I'm me. Still, this has re-convinced me to keep going with the Fforde books. His streak for silliness and the unexpected just keeps me coming back for more.
September 15, 2012
I'd like to start this review by saying that Jasper Fforde is a genius. I loved his Thursday Next series, thoroughly enjoyed the first Nursery Crimes book (The Big Over Easy), and can honestly say this is hands-down my favourite of his books.
The Fourth Bear is, ostensibly, Fforde's take on Goldilocks and the Three Bears. But there's so much more to the story than just that one fairy tale. Add a murderous gingerbread man, Jack's habit of accidentally killing giants (and coming across extremely fast-growing beanstalks), and a Greek God to the mix, and you've got a book that is laugh out loud funny time and time again.
If you love Jasper Fforde, pick up this book. If you've never read Jasper Fforde, this is not a bad book to begin with. (It doesn't matter that it's #2 in the series.) But new readers beware: The Fourth Bear includes puns, side-jokes, nursery rhyme characters, meta-fiction, philosophy, deep introspection, a stunning and surprising story, and enough silliness to make reading this book in a public place a dangerous idea if you're embarassed by spontaneous chuckling.
The Fourth Bear is, ostensibly, Fforde's take on Goldilocks and the Three Bears. But there's so much more to the story than just that one fairy tale. Add a murderous gingerbread man, Jack's habit of accidentally killing giants (and coming across extremely fast-growing beanstalks), and a Greek God to the mix, and you've got a book that is laugh out loud funny time and time again.
If you love Jasper Fforde, pick up this book. If you've never read Jasper Fforde, this is not a bad book to begin with. (It doesn't matter that it's #2 in the series.) But new readers beware: The Fourth Bear includes puns, side-jokes, nursery rhyme characters, meta-fiction, philosophy, deep introspection, a stunning and surprising story, and enough silliness to make reading this book in a public place a dangerous idea if you're embarassed by spontaneous chuckling.
October 25, 2008
4.0 to 4.5 stars. Another excellent book by a truly gifted writer. While not quite as good as The Big Over Easy which I thought was simply amazing, this is still a very high quality effort. Highly Recommended!!!
May 1, 2019
This book took quite a while to read to the kids. I found it to be more interesting than the first book, but also slightly confusing because I kept forgetting who Bisky-Batt was. 4 stars for being an entertaining read.
If you haven't read the first book 'The Big Over Easy', let me give you a re-cap. There is a place called Reading near London? As a person from the U.S. I always say something is near London. I'm as naive as most. So... back to the re-cap. There is a division of the Police force....the lowest of the police force called the NCD or Nursery Crime Division. This branch of the Police are strictly for weird, unusual and mysterious crimes that revolve around Nursery Rhyme characters. The head of this division is Jack Spratt. Along with his partner Mary Mary, the department is all of three people. The third in their small department is a Rombosian (a.k.a. a little blue alien). They unfortunately are the laugh of the town and no one believes them or at least they don't want to believe them.
In the last book, Spratt had to find out who killed Humpty Dumpty. In this one it's a bit more confusing. It takes place at the 3 Bears House in Andersen's Wood and Goldilocks is found dead. Who killed her? Lots of Nursery stuff happen in this book, a lot of police and government politics and CUCUMBERS. Just it's a big part of the story. Trust me.
If you like detective based mystery stories and you like silly/fun ways of telling them you will definitely like this book. Jasper Fforde also wrote the Thursday Next series which I think takes place in the same world, but we follow story book/ classic/ literary fiction characters. I can't wait to start on that one.
If you haven't read the first book 'The Big Over Easy', let me give you a re-cap. There is a place called Reading near London? As a person from the U.S. I always say something is near London. I'm as naive as most. So... back to the re-cap. There is a division of the Police force....the lowest of the police force called the NCD or Nursery Crime Division. This branch of the Police are strictly for weird, unusual and mysterious crimes that revolve around Nursery Rhyme characters. The head of this division is Jack Spratt. Along with his partner Mary Mary, the department is all of three people. The third in their small department is a Rombosian (a.k.a. a little blue alien). They unfortunately are the laugh of the town and no one believes them or at least they don't want to believe them.
In the last book, Spratt had to find out who killed Humpty Dumpty. In this one it's a bit more confusing. It takes place at the 3 Bears House in Andersen's Wood and Goldilocks is found dead. Who killed her? Lots of Nursery stuff happen in this book, a lot of police and government politics and CUCUMBERS. Just it's a big part of the story. Trust me.
If you like detective based mystery stories and you like silly/fun ways of telling them you will definitely like this book. Jasper Fforde also wrote the Thursday Next series which I think takes place in the same world, but we follow story book/ classic/ literary fiction characters. I can't wait to start on that one.
October 3, 2014
I’m not sure whether it’s the book, or whether I was just in the perfect mood for it, but regardless, the result is the same. The Fourth Bear is my favorite of the seven Jasper Fforde novels I’ve read. The first five Thursday Next Novels are fun but can be a bit overwhelming, and sometimes downright confusing, and the first Nursery Crime book, The Big Over Easy, does a little bit too much work setting up the Nursery Crime world to really enjoy its premise. But everything is very clear and delightfully tongue in cheek in The Fourth Bear, which is a rather silly take on Goldilocks and the Three Bears, involving stolen cucumbers, exploding greenhouses, and investigative journalism.
Nursery Crime Division detectives Jack Spratt and his partner Mary Mary are once again back, alongside their co-worker Ashley, who is wee little blue alien man with a rather large crush on Mary. They are the police in charge of investigating all incidents involving fictional characters (who live in the world alongside non-fictional people like ourselves). Their investigation into the murder of Goldilocks involves lots of other terribly silly but still rather clever things, like the giant Gingerbreadman, the most fearsome serial killer who ever lived, who has escaped and is terrorizing the population of Reading, a subplot about bear porridge smuggling (because porridge is a regulated substance for bears–it’s basically like heroin for them), and a whole thing with Jack buying a new car from Dorian Gray. Yes, that Dorian Gray.
All in all, it’s a pretty great spoof of noir mysteries and thrillers, but you don’t need to all that familiar with those genres in order to have fun with this book. I finished it and immediately wished that the long-awaited third book was already available. Apparently Fforde has been promising the tentatively titled The Last Great Tortoise Race for years. Jasper, we need this book. We don’t need another Thursday Next book quite yet. There are already seven of them, with another on the way. We NEED the third Nursery Crime book. We need it like your bears need their porridge.
I can’t help feeling like he brought this on himself, though. Witness Jack’s rumination upon speaking with a Nursery character who knows she’s underwritten:
Nursery Crime Division detectives Jack Spratt and his partner Mary Mary are once again back, alongside their co-worker Ashley, who is wee little blue alien man with a rather large crush on Mary. They are the police in charge of investigating all incidents involving fictional characters (who live in the world alongside non-fictional people like ourselves). Their investigation into the murder of Goldilocks involves lots of other terribly silly but still rather clever things, like the giant Gingerbreadman, the most fearsome serial killer who ever lived, who has escaped and is terrorizing the population of Reading, a subplot about bear porridge smuggling (because porridge is a regulated substance for bears–it’s basically like heroin for them), and a whole thing with Jack buying a new car from Dorian Gray. Yes, that Dorian Gray.
All in all, it’s a pretty great spoof of noir mysteries and thrillers, but you don’t need to all that familiar with those genres in order to have fun with this book. I finished it and immediately wished that the long-awaited third book was already available. Apparently Fforde has been promising the tentatively titled The Last Great Tortoise Race for years. Jasper, we need this book. We don’t need another Thursday Next book quite yet. There are already seven of them, with another on the way. We NEED the third Nursery Crime book. We need it like your bears need their porridge.
I can’t help feeling like he brought this on himself, though. Witness Jack’s rumination upon speaking with a Nursery character who knows she’s underwritten:
“Jack felt sorry for her. It can’t be easy to have your life summed up in a few perfunctory descriptive terms, the sole meaning of your existence just a few lines in the incalculable vastness of fiction. Still, this was his career in the balance. If he didn’t deal with her, the Jack Spratt series was likely to stop abruptly at the second volume. No third book and definitely no box set.”Bet he forgot to knock on some wood after he was done being all meta and clever. Cheeky bastard.
January 29, 2019
This was disappointing. I did enjoy the first book in the series and had been looking forward to this one, but it has a lot of problems that really annoyed me. Looking back, I am certain the first book shared many of the same problems, but the novelty and humour helped overcome them. Unfortunately, I think the humour in these is the sort that gets old very fast.
So...
The major problems:
First up is the narrative mode, which is third-person omniscient. Omniscient is a perfectly valid mode, but it's not particularly fashionable these days, and needs to be handled with care. Said care is not in evidence in this book. Omniscient lets the narrator dip into the heads of any of the characters, and attempts at it often lead to the familiar "head hopping" complaint when the author switches heads too often or too quickly, and that problem is definitely present here.
Next up is the whole "meta" thing. Some readers like this. I am not one of them. Fforde plays with the fourth wall like a cat playing with its food here. There's some context in the story, in that the detectives in this world all write up and publish their cases, Sherlock Holmes style. There is less discussion of this than there was in the first book, but it gives them some leeway to talk about consciously shaping the way cases play out for dramatic effect and discussing whether they're planning to use some specific plot device. Some level of that I find amusing, but Fforde takes it too far for me. When he has the character thinking that if he doesn't deal with one particular person the series will end with book two, it kicked me out of the story hard and I never quite recovered.
Finally, kitchensinkiness. The book is too damn long. It meanders. And while Fforde does tie up a lot of things which, when you first encounter them, seem like pointless wandering digressions, I can't help but think the book would be much better if he limited himself to the Nursery Rhyme theme when selecting characters and setting up jokes instead of tossing in anything and everything that ever occurs to him. It would definitely benefit from some serious tightening up.
There were some laughs. It wasn't all bad. But will I read the third and supposedly final volume when it comes out? I don't know. I may forget about all the problems by then and read it by mistake.
So...
The major problems:
First up is the narrative mode, which is third-person omniscient. Omniscient is a perfectly valid mode, but it's not particularly fashionable these days, and needs to be handled with care. Said care is not in evidence in this book. Omniscient lets the narrator dip into the heads of any of the characters, and attempts at it often lead to the familiar "head hopping" complaint when the author switches heads too often or too quickly, and that problem is definitely present here.
Next up is the whole "meta" thing. Some readers like this. I am not one of them. Fforde plays with the fourth wall like a cat playing with its food here. There's some context in the story, in that the detectives in this world all write up and publish their cases, Sherlock Holmes style. There is less discussion of this than there was in the first book, but it gives them some leeway to talk about consciously shaping the way cases play out for dramatic effect and discussing whether they're planning to use some specific plot device. Some level of that I find amusing, but Fforde takes it too far for me. When he has the character thinking that if he doesn't deal with one particular person the series will end with book two, it kicked me out of the story hard and I never quite recovered.
Finally, kitchensinkiness. The book is too damn long. It meanders. And while Fforde does tie up a lot of things which, when you first encounter them, seem like pointless wandering digressions, I can't help but think the book would be much better if he limited himself to the Nursery Rhyme theme when selecting characters and setting up jokes instead of tossing in anything and everything that ever occurs to him. It would definitely benefit from some serious tightening up.
There were some laughs. It wasn't all bad. But will I read the third and supposedly final volume when it comes out? I don't know. I may forget about all the problems by then and read it by mistake.
June 27, 2011
Cuculear power! The Battle of the Somme! Ginga assassins! Aliens from outer space! A conspiracy run by an evil multinational corporation! A woman in uniform flashing the International Space Station! "Pippa Piper picking Peter 'pockmarked' Peck of Pembroke Park over Picker or Pepper!"
It's outrageous, zany and fun. Imagine Scheherazade spinning a tale out of your childhood nursery stories, except she's been sucking on a hookah and freed from the constraints imposed by an English teacher. For anyone versed in the English language, Jasper Fforde is a joy to read.
It's outrageous, zany and fun. Imagine Scheherazade spinning a tale out of your childhood nursery stories, except she's been sucking on a hookah and freed from the constraints imposed by an English teacher. For anyone versed in the English language, Jasper Fforde is a joy to read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 26, 2022
_________________________
Caution: May Contain Nuts
The Gingerbreadman, the arch villain in The Fourth Bear, is seven feet of vicious, manical. . . ah, cookie...(or perhaps cake)... who has escaped from an insane asylum, is having a great time tearing people's arms off, and has a grudge against Jack Spratt, the fatophobic hero of this nursery crime story.
Now perhaps you are a down-to-earth kind of person and think that swallowing a seven-foot-tall, crazy, anthropomorphic, ginja-warrior, cereal-killer cookie as a villain would be difficult for you. But Jasper Fforde is a genius at taking seemingly absurd premises and turning them into stimulating, delicious tales filled with nutty goodness. The Fourth Bear, like Fforde's other tales, takes place in a world where fictional characters have lives outside of their books. In this case the characters are from nursery rhymes and fairy tales, but don't worry, this is NOT a children's book. It is a hilarious spoof on TV and movie crime shows, complete with all your favorite crime story plot devices and chock full of delightful word play and literary references that will keep you laughing and your brain regular.
Goldilocks is dead. The Gingerbreadman is terrorizing Reading, England. Giant cucumbers are mysteriously exploding. And to make matters worse, police detective Jack Spratt has been swallowed whole by the Big Bad Wolf. So what are you waiting for. Run, Run, fast as you can. . .get your copy today!
Caution: May Contain Nuts
The Gingerbreadman, the arch villain in The Fourth Bear, is seven feet of vicious, manical. . . ah, cookie...(or perhaps cake)... who has escaped from an insane asylum, is having a great time tearing people's arms off, and has a grudge against Jack Spratt, the fatophobic hero of this nursery crime story.
Now perhaps you are a down-to-earth kind of person and think that swallowing a seven-foot-tall, crazy, anthropomorphic, ginja-warrior, cereal-killer cookie as a villain would be difficult for you. But Jasper Fforde is a genius at taking seemingly absurd premises and turning them into stimulating, delicious tales filled with nutty goodness. The Fourth Bear, like Fforde's other tales, takes place in a world where fictional characters have lives outside of their books. In this case the characters are from nursery rhymes and fairy tales, but don't worry, this is NOT a children's book. It is a hilarious spoof on TV and movie crime shows, complete with all your favorite crime story plot devices and chock full of delightful word play and literary references that will keep you laughing and your brain regular.
Goldilocks is dead. The Gingerbreadman is terrorizing Reading, England. Giant cucumbers are mysteriously exploding. And to make matters worse, police detective Jack Spratt has been swallowed whole by the Big Bad Wolf. So what are you waiting for. Run, Run, fast as you can. . .get your copy today!
April 13, 2023
Thoroughly enjoyable madness from Jasper Fforde.
I took a break from the Thursday Next's for a time in order to read the Nursery Crime books which are mentioned.
The Fourth takes up the story of DCI Jack Spratt and DS Mary Mary as they try to discover what has happened to a blonde haired, fusspot journalist aka Goldilocks.
There is a lot packed into this book. Mary Mary is still dumping her boyfriend, Jack's son has adopted a strange creature who likes to steal and appears to live under the stairs, Pandora and Prometheus are planning their wedding and The Gingerbread Man, a psychopathic killer, has escaped.
The story is wonderfully OTT and we meet some wonderful new characters, including Punch and Judy, the three bears and several characters from The Quangle Wangle's Hat (a poem written in 1876 by the glorious Edward Lear, proving that bonkers tales have been around a long time). However we don't meet the Quangle Wangle himself because "no one meets the boss".
I loved it. I love Fforde's silliness and ability to turn already odd things into serious(ish) ideas. I shall return to the last few Thursday Next books now and hope, with bated breath and fingers crossed, that there's a new Nursery Crime out soon.
I took a break from the Thursday Next's for a time in order to read the Nursery Crime books which are mentioned.
The Fourth takes up the story of DCI Jack Spratt and DS Mary Mary as they try to discover what has happened to a blonde haired, fusspot journalist aka Goldilocks.
There is a lot packed into this book. Mary Mary is still dumping her boyfriend, Jack's son has adopted a strange creature who likes to steal and appears to live under the stairs, Pandora and Prometheus are planning their wedding and The Gingerbread Man, a psychopathic killer, has escaped.
The story is wonderfully OTT and we meet some wonderful new characters, including Punch and Judy, the three bears and several characters from The Quangle Wangle's Hat (a poem written in 1876 by the glorious Edward Lear, proving that bonkers tales have been around a long time). However we don't meet the Quangle Wangle himself because "no one meets the boss".
I loved it. I love Fforde's silliness and ability to turn already odd things into serious(ish) ideas. I shall return to the last few Thursday Next books now and hope, with bated breath and fingers crossed, that there's a new Nursery Crime out soon.
January 5, 2018
Second in the Nursery Crime take-off-on nursery rhymes and fairytales series and revolving around a police division headed up by Jack Spratt. It’s been four months since
The Big Over Easy
, 1.
My Take
This one is a bit confusing, but don’t worry about it. Eventually it all comes right, as Fforde just has to set up that bit of foreshadowing. Of course, those epigraphs were still totally weird, and I don’t see how the majority of them contributed to the story. The concept, sure. But.
I do wish that Fforde would integrate mention of those subplots and plot devices more. It’s as if two worlds are colliding. Yeah, yeah, part of the collision is Fforde’s take on nursery rhymes, childhood bugaboos, and the paranormal, and it is hysterically funny and well-integrated into a detective novel. I like the idea of that “new” Allegro Equipe. At least until near the end, but then it, ahem, “improved” again. An interesting way to pull in yet another fantastical notion. But pulling in those three bears and tying them up with that reporter. Oh, yeah. That was brilliant.
You’ll want to cry about Ashley…that longed-for date with Mary… As for his parents…they can’t have been paying enough attention to TV. But when you learn of Bartholomew’s dilemma, you’ll want to crack up. Talk about “discrimination”, lol.
I’m thinking Fforde used a third-person global subjective point-of-view because we do “hear” what different characters are thinking even though Fforde doesn’t go into any real-depth with any of the characters but Jack. Probably because his character is in such conflict with himself.
That short blip about theme parks is yet another crack up. I gotta say DescarteLand sounds pretty cheap to operate, lol.
Do be sure to read the Epilogue…especially the one about Nick Demetrios. ROFL, those last two sentences…
And what are your thoughts on gingerbread? Is it a cookie or a cake? Find out which at the end.
The Story
The question is, is Jack Spratt too insane for NCD? After all, Red Riding-Hood and her grandmother are still catatonic and there’s the bait that was used on the Scissor-man. Hmmm…
The thing is, Spratt is just a cop trying to do his job, but the politics and the powers-that-be have other plans. Plans that seem to be okay with the Gingerbreadman — sadist, psychopath, cookie — being on the loose in Reading.
Even though Jack caught him last time, his “superiors” have sent Jack and Mary in search of a missing journalist “Goldy” Hatchett. The last witnesses to see her alive were the reclusive Three Bears, and right away Spratt senses something furry — uh, funny — about their story.
Yep, it’s al-l-l about the porridge.
The Characters
Detective Jack Spratt is the head of the very underfunded Nursery Crime Division. He’s buying a new-to-him Allegro Equipe — from Dorian Gray — to replace the Allegro that was destroyed. Madeleine, a photographer, has been Jack’s second wife for five years with no idea about the truth. Ben and Pandora are Jack’s kids; eight-year-old Jerome and Megan are Madeleine’s; and, eighteen-month-old Stevie is theirs. Prometheus (that Prometheus) is Pandora’s fiancé. (Bacchus has taken over the reception arrangements for the wedding.) Jerome wants to be a vet and has brought home a pet: Caliban. Aunt Beryl and her weird dog named Frubbles are creating wedding ructions.
Mrs Sittkomm is Jack’s neighbor. Neville is Madeleine’s jerk of an ex-husband.
The Nursery Crime Division (NCD) was…
…formed in 1958 by DCI Jack Horner to handle nursery-related inquiries. Besides Jack, the department consists of Sergeant Mary Mary who lives in (and is restoring) an old Short Sunderland flying boat and Constable Ashley, a Rambosian with total recall who is part of the Alien Equal Opportunities Program. Constables Charlie Baker (he’s been in danger of dying within six months for the past thirteen years) and Gretel Brown-Horrocks (she’s a forensic accountant who married Brown-Horrocks from The Big Over Easy ) help out on an as-needed basis.
The rest of the police station in Reading, Berkshire County, England
The “beautiful Pippa in the control room”, a.k.a., PC Phillippa Piper, is the subject of a betting pool. Constable Peck is quite pockmarked. Superintendent Geoffrey Briggs is Jack’s immediate superior and the liaison between NCD and the rest of the police force. Despite knowing nothing, Detective Inspector David Copperfield is put in charge of the Gingerbreadman case. Sergeant Fox.
Mrs. Singh is the pathologist. Agatha Diesel is a parking attendant (married to Briggs) who wants to get it off with Jack. Dr. Virginia Kreeper is a counselor for the police. Penny and Anne Moffat are the daughters of Virginia’s brother Dave and his wife, Felicity, Virginia’s best friend. Marco Ferranti is the police claims assessor who examines damage inflicted by the cops in the course of their duties.
Raymond was one of Mary’s cousins. Mary is trying to force the sweet Arnold Westlake into the ex-boyfriend column. Mrs. Dish’s daughter ran off and married Wallace Spoon. Mr and Mrs Scroggins and their seventeen children love their heavy-metal, but Mr. Punch and Judy are much louder. Captain Nemo lives in the Nautilus and is one of Mary’s neighbors. Dr. Colin Parrot has mastered basic binary, but has a long way to go. Adrian 1001010111111101010 is his teacher. Penelope Liddell is the object of Ben’s unrequited love. Mrs Aldiss is a widow. Roger in blue gingham and Abigail with the folded newspaper and slippers are Ash’s parents and have got it all wrong. Daisy, Ash’s sister, is too human, lol. Graham is Ash’s brother. His Uncle Colin is that embarrassing relative while Cousin Eric isn’t nuts enough.
The Armitage Shanks Literary Awards are…
…attended by Otis ChufftY, a master of pseudointellectual rubbish. Marcus Sphincter, Jennifer Darkke, and Nigel Huxtable are short-listed for a prize. Attery-Squash is the head of Crumpetty Tree Press, which publishes Madeleine’s coffee table photography books. Lord Spooncurdle is an idiot; James Wheat-Reed, Esq isn’t fooling anyone with his “niece” Roberta; Mr and Mrs Croft have a fat daughter, Erica; the Dong; Mr and Mrs Boore suit their name; and, Admiral Robert Shaftoe. Wendell Klopotnik has written a novel.
St. Cerebellums is…
…a nuthouse, er, I mean, the premier secure hospital for the criminally insane in Reading and is owned by QuangTech. Dr Alan Mandible is in charge. Dr Quatt used to be associated with the hospital. Some of the killers imprisoned there include the Gingerbreadman (gives off whiffs of ginger); Peter the Eater; Sasha the Slasher; Mr. Browner the Serial Drowner; Maximilian “Mad Max Marx, the Masked Manxman Axman” Marx; Deirdre Blott (she tried to one-up Max with “Nutty Nora Newsome, the Knife Wielding Weird Widow from Waddersdon”); and, Martin Gooch, a frustrated film producer.
Dr. Maxilla has a clinic in Kobe, Japan; Professor Frank Strait heads up a specialist hospital in Ohio; Dr. Vômer is a French delegate; Professor Palatine is the head of the Jordanian mental institute; and, Dr. Lacrimal is a German delegate.
A neighborhood in West Reading, a.k.a.,
“Cautionary Valley”, is eerily known for children who behave. Conrad Hoffman, seventeen, is being prepped as bait. Roland Snork’s face froze.
Berkshire, England is…
…a county where all talking animals have a safe haven since the 1962 Animal Equality Bill was passed. Dismissing the bucolic nature of the countryside, the bears banded together and built Robert Southey Tower, a luxury apartment building.
Tarquin Majors is a drug dealing bear. Well, okay, it’s porridge, but really, it’s the same thing. Algy is a wanna-be buyer. “Flake” is a Class III foodstuff; it’s claimed that rationed use does no harm. “Doughballs”, “buzz”, and “sweet” are still on the rigorously controlled Class II list. “Chunk”, “shred”, or “peel” are on the Class I list and considered most dangerous. Guy Gorilla is the owner of Three Monkeys Trading. Investigator Vincent “Vinnie” Craps is undercover for the League of Ursidae and is licensed by NS4.
Andersen’s Wood, a…
…6,000-acre tract of forest, played a part in The Big Over Easy . Edward and Ursula Bruin live there with their adopted son, Nigel.
QuangTech is…
…a huge multibillion-dollar corporation headed up by the reclusive James Quangle-Wangle. But they’re not as big as The Goliath Corporation. Quangle-Wangle's expensive pet project is SommeWorld, a theme park intended to scare you off war with Stuart Haig in charge. Horace Bisky-Batt is the Quangle-Wangle’s second-in-command.
Former PDR partners with Quangle-Wangle in starting up QuangTech include Attery-Squash, The Dong with the Luminous Nose, Mr and Mrs Canary, Blue Baboon, George Fimble-Fowl, Roderick Pobble, the Orient Calf from the Land of Tute, and the SOB.
NS4 is…
…the most secret of the secret organizations — National Security. Nick Demetrios is its director-general. Agent Danvers is partnered with Agent Lunk. Both are jerks.
Obscurity is…
…a village that never makes it on to any map with a vicar who is anxious for someone to eat his wife’s scones. Stanley Cripps, a resident, is one of the top cucumbering competitors on an international level.
Other cucumber growers included Howard Katzenberg, a retired mathematician, and Simon Prong who both died in explosions. Professor Angus McGuffin, a physicist, is dead, supposedly. Hardy Fuchsia is Cripps’ archrival and the editor, proprietor, publisher, and founder of Cucumber World; he lives in Sonning. Dr Parks is a pseudoscientist. The Men in Green are terrorists.
Newshounds
Henrietta “Goldy” Hatchett is an investigative journalist for The Toad, and Josh Hatchett, one of NCD’s biggest critics, is her journalist brother. Hector Sleaze is with The Mole. Jeremy Bearre is with the Ursine Chronicle. Other newspapers in Reading include the Reading Daily Eyestrain and The Owl.
Mr Curry was a dinner companion for Goldy. Rupert and Winston are Goldy’s neighbors. The gay and Right Honorable Sherman Bartholomew is a free-thinking, radical MP and had been the defense attorney for the Gingerbreadman, who has been misleading the public. Douglas is his life partner.
The Great Long Red-Legg’d Scissor-man incentivized “Cautionary Valley”. PDRs are Persons of Dubious Reality who have fallen through from the written to the real. Rumplestiltskin is serving ten years.
The Most Worshipful Guild of Detectives is no longer interested in Spratt as a member. The cowardly DCI Friedland Chymes has retired from the force but is still head of the Guild. He and Wilmot Snaarb helped capture the Gingerbreadman. Rambosians adore watching earth television and filing and speak binary.
The Cover and Title
The cover appears to be a woodcut with a green background of Andersen's Wood and a wee white cottage nestled up against the trees. In the forefront is the back of a really big bear in all his fur. The author's name is three-dimensional in white at the top while the title stands out in a three-dimensional pale yellow with the brown fur as a background. Just above the title, some chickenscratch informs us that "Jack Spratt Investigates" while a round badge in yellow and blue at the bottom right announces the series name.
The title is quite sinister, for it’s all about The Fourth Bear.
My Take
This one is a bit confusing, but don’t worry about it. Eventually it all comes right, as Fforde just has to set up that bit of foreshadowing. Of course, those epigraphs were still totally weird, and I don’t see how the majority of them contributed to the story. The concept, sure. But.
I do wish that Fforde would integrate mention of those subplots and plot devices more. It’s as if two worlds are colliding. Yeah, yeah, part of the collision is Fforde’s take on nursery rhymes, childhood bugaboos, and the paranormal, and it is hysterically funny and well-integrated into a detective novel. I like the idea of that “new” Allegro Equipe. At least until near the end, but then it, ahem, “improved” again. An interesting way to pull in yet another fantastical notion. But pulling in those three bears and tying them up with that reporter. Oh, yeah. That was brilliant.
You’ll want to cry about Ashley…that longed-for date with Mary… As for his parents…they can’t have been paying enough attention to TV. But when you learn of Bartholomew’s dilemma, you’ll want to crack up. Talk about “discrimination”, lol.
”Prejudice is a product of ignorance that hides behind barriers of tradition, Inspector.”Sadly, Jack’s situation with the department is too similar to reality with his “superiors” more concerned about how things look than in getting the job done. Speaking of "looks", Punch and Judy certainly prove that you shouldn't judge a book by its loud, mouthy quarrels.
I’m thinking Fforde used a third-person global subjective point-of-view because we do “hear” what different characters are thinking even though Fforde doesn’t go into any real-depth with any of the characters but Jack. Probably because his character is in such conflict with himself.
That short blip about theme parks is yet another crack up. I gotta say DescarteLand sounds pretty cheap to operate, lol.
Do be sure to read the Epilogue…especially the one about Nick Demetrios. ROFL, those last two sentences…
And what are your thoughts on gingerbread? Is it a cookie or a cake? Find out which at the end.
The Story
The question is, is Jack Spratt too insane for NCD? After all, Red Riding-Hood and her grandmother are still catatonic and there’s the bait that was used on the Scissor-man. Hmmm…
The thing is, Spratt is just a cop trying to do his job, but the politics and the powers-that-be have other plans. Plans that seem to be okay with the Gingerbreadman — sadist, psychopath, cookie — being on the loose in Reading.
Even though Jack caught him last time, his “superiors” have sent Jack and Mary in search of a missing journalist “Goldy” Hatchett. The last witnesses to see her alive were the reclusive Three Bears, and right away Spratt senses something furry — uh, funny — about their story.
Yep, it’s al-l-l about the porridge.
The Characters
Detective Jack Spratt is the head of the very underfunded Nursery Crime Division. He’s buying a new-to-him Allegro Equipe — from Dorian Gray — to replace the Allegro that was destroyed. Madeleine, a photographer, has been Jack’s second wife for five years with no idea about the truth. Ben and Pandora are Jack’s kids; eight-year-old Jerome and Megan are Madeleine’s; and, eighteen-month-old Stevie is theirs. Prometheus (that Prometheus) is Pandora’s fiancé. (Bacchus has taken over the reception arrangements for the wedding.) Jerome wants to be a vet and has brought home a pet: Caliban. Aunt Beryl and her weird dog named Frubbles are creating wedding ructions.
Mrs Sittkomm is Jack’s neighbor. Neville is Madeleine’s jerk of an ex-husband.
The Nursery Crime Division (NCD) was…
…formed in 1958 by DCI Jack Horner to handle nursery-related inquiries. Besides Jack, the department consists of Sergeant Mary Mary who lives in (and is restoring) an old Short Sunderland flying boat and Constable Ashley, a Rambosian with total recall who is part of the Alien Equal Opportunities Program. Constables Charlie Baker (he’s been in danger of dying within six months for the past thirteen years) and Gretel Brown-Horrocks (she’s a forensic accountant who married Brown-Horrocks from The Big Over Easy ) help out on an as-needed basis.
The rest of the police station in Reading, Berkshire County, England
The “beautiful Pippa in the control room”, a.k.a., PC Phillippa Piper, is the subject of a betting pool. Constable Peck is quite pockmarked. Superintendent Geoffrey Briggs is Jack’s immediate superior and the liaison between NCD and the rest of the police force. Despite knowing nothing, Detective Inspector David Copperfield is put in charge of the Gingerbreadman case. Sergeant Fox.
Mrs. Singh is the pathologist. Agatha Diesel is a parking attendant (married to Briggs) who wants to get it off with Jack. Dr. Virginia Kreeper is a counselor for the police. Penny and Anne Moffat are the daughters of Virginia’s brother Dave and his wife, Felicity, Virginia’s best friend. Marco Ferranti is the police claims assessor who examines damage inflicted by the cops in the course of their duties.
Raymond was one of Mary’s cousins. Mary is trying to force the sweet Arnold Westlake into the ex-boyfriend column. Mrs. Dish’s daughter ran off and married Wallace Spoon. Mr and Mrs Scroggins and their seventeen children love their heavy-metal, but Mr. Punch and Judy are much louder. Captain Nemo lives in the Nautilus and is one of Mary’s neighbors. Dr. Colin Parrot has mastered basic binary, but has a long way to go. Adrian 1001010111111101010 is his teacher. Penelope Liddell is the object of Ben’s unrequited love. Mrs Aldiss is a widow. Roger in blue gingham and Abigail with the folded newspaper and slippers are Ash’s parents and have got it all wrong. Daisy, Ash’s sister, is too human, lol. Graham is Ash’s brother. His Uncle Colin is that embarrassing relative while Cousin Eric isn’t nuts enough.
The Armitage Shanks Literary Awards are…
…attended by Otis ChufftY, a master of pseudointellectual rubbish. Marcus Sphincter, Jennifer Darkke, and Nigel Huxtable are short-listed for a prize. Attery-Squash is the head of Crumpetty Tree Press, which publishes Madeleine’s coffee table photography books. Lord Spooncurdle is an idiot; James Wheat-Reed, Esq isn’t fooling anyone with his “niece” Roberta; Mr and Mrs Croft have a fat daughter, Erica; the Dong; Mr and Mrs Boore suit their name; and, Admiral Robert Shaftoe. Wendell Klopotnik has written a novel.
St. Cerebellums is…
…a nuthouse, er, I mean, the premier secure hospital for the criminally insane in Reading and is owned by QuangTech. Dr Alan Mandible is in charge. Dr Quatt used to be associated with the hospital. Some of the killers imprisoned there include the Gingerbreadman (gives off whiffs of ginger); Peter the Eater; Sasha the Slasher; Mr. Browner the Serial Drowner; Maximilian “Mad Max Marx, the Masked Manxman Axman” Marx; Deirdre Blott (she tried to one-up Max with “Nutty Nora Newsome, the Knife Wielding Weird Widow from Waddersdon”); and, Martin Gooch, a frustrated film producer.
Dr. Maxilla has a clinic in Kobe, Japan; Professor Frank Strait heads up a specialist hospital in Ohio; Dr. Vômer is a French delegate; Professor Palatine is the head of the Jordanian mental institute; and, Dr. Lacrimal is a German delegate.
A neighborhood in West Reading, a.k.a.,
“Cautionary Valley”, is eerily known for children who behave. Conrad Hoffman, seventeen, is being prepped as bait. Roland Snork’s face froze.
Berkshire, England is…
…a county where all talking animals have a safe haven since the 1962 Animal Equality Bill was passed. Dismissing the bucolic nature of the countryside, the bears banded together and built Robert Southey Tower, a luxury apartment building.
Tarquin Majors is a drug dealing bear. Well, okay, it’s porridge, but really, it’s the same thing. Algy is a wanna-be buyer. “Flake” is a Class III foodstuff; it’s claimed that rationed use does no harm. “Doughballs”, “buzz”, and “sweet” are still on the rigorously controlled Class II list. “Chunk”, “shred”, or “peel” are on the Class I list and considered most dangerous. Guy Gorilla is the owner of Three Monkeys Trading. Investigator Vincent “Vinnie” Craps is undercover for the League of Ursidae and is licensed by NS4.
Andersen’s Wood, a…
…6,000-acre tract of forest, played a part in The Big Over Easy . Edward and Ursula Bruin live there with their adopted son, Nigel.
QuangTech is…
…a huge multibillion-dollar corporation headed up by the reclusive James Quangle-Wangle. But they’re not as big as The Goliath Corporation. Quangle-Wangle's expensive pet project is SommeWorld, a theme park intended to scare you off war with Stuart Haig in charge. Horace Bisky-Batt is the Quangle-Wangle’s second-in-command.
Former PDR partners with Quangle-Wangle in starting up QuangTech include Attery-Squash, The Dong with the Luminous Nose, Mr and Mrs Canary, Blue Baboon, George Fimble-Fowl, Roderick Pobble, the Orient Calf from the Land of Tute, and the SOB.
NS4 is…
…the most secret of the secret organizations — National Security. Nick Demetrios is its director-general. Agent Danvers is partnered with Agent Lunk. Both are jerks.
Obscurity is…
…a village that never makes it on to any map with a vicar who is anxious for someone to eat his wife’s scones. Stanley Cripps, a resident, is one of the top cucumbering competitors on an international level.
Other cucumber growers included Howard Katzenberg, a retired mathematician, and Simon Prong who both died in explosions. Professor Angus McGuffin, a physicist, is dead, supposedly. Hardy Fuchsia is Cripps’ archrival and the editor, proprietor, publisher, and founder of Cucumber World; he lives in Sonning. Dr Parks is a pseudoscientist. The Men in Green are terrorists.
Newshounds
Henrietta “Goldy” Hatchett is an investigative journalist for The Toad, and Josh Hatchett, one of NCD’s biggest critics, is her journalist brother. Hector Sleaze is with The Mole. Jeremy Bearre is with the Ursine Chronicle. Other newspapers in Reading include the Reading Daily Eyestrain and The Owl.
Mr Curry was a dinner companion for Goldy. Rupert and Winston are Goldy’s neighbors. The gay and Right Honorable Sherman Bartholomew is a free-thinking, radical MP and had been the defense attorney for the Gingerbreadman, who has been misleading the public. Douglas is his life partner.
The Great Long Red-Legg’d Scissor-man incentivized “Cautionary Valley”. PDRs are Persons of Dubious Reality who have fallen through from the written to the real. Rumplestiltskin is serving ten years.
The Most Worshipful Guild of Detectives is no longer interested in Spratt as a member. The cowardly DCI Friedland Chymes has retired from the force but is still head of the Guild. He and Wilmot Snaarb helped capture the Gingerbreadman. Rambosians adore watching earth television and filing and speak binary.
The Cover and Title
The cover appears to be a woodcut with a green background of Andersen's Wood and a wee white cottage nestled up against the trees. In the forefront is the back of a really big bear in all his fur. The author's name is three-dimensional in white at the top while the title stands out in a three-dimensional pale yellow with the brown fur as a background. Just above the title, some chickenscratch informs us that "Jack Spratt Investigates" while a round badge in yellow and blue at the bottom right announces the series name.
The title is quite sinister, for it’s all about The Fourth Bear.
September 4, 2022
Re-read 9/2/22: I didn't realize it had been ten years since I last read this, and now my complete lack of memory of the plot makes sense. I didn't enjoy this as much as I did the first book in the series, though some of that is due to the audio book reader, who in my opinion wasn't as good. Additionally, the plot kind of meanders, and it takes a while to focus on what the central storyline is--something that I think is more obvious in audio. But once it gets going, the mystery is interesting and complex. Fforde's writing is wacky in the best way, where complete absurdities are taken at face value. There's one instance of absolutely shattering the fourth wall for the sake of a really stupid gag, but it's funny (if a bit of a groaner) rather than stupid. I half wondered if Fforde had put it there to see how closely his editor was paying attention.
Now that Fforde appears to be back on track with regular publications, I hope there really is another Nursery Crime in the future.
Read 9/29/12: This installment in the Nursery Crimes series isn't as laugh-out-loud funny as some of Fforde's other books, but the parody is still strong and there's plenty to like here. It's interesting to keep in mind, as I read it, that technically Jack Spratt and Mary Mary are in a book that exists in the Thursday Next series--the book Thursday uses as a hideout from Goliath as she's expecting her son and trying to get her husband re-actualized. I half expect Thursday to show up at some point, though by the rules of Bookworld we'd never see her....
Now that Fforde appears to be back on track with regular publications, I hope there really is another Nursery Crime in the future.
Read 9/29/12: This installment in the Nursery Crimes series isn't as laugh-out-loud funny as some of Fforde's other books, but the parody is still strong and there's plenty to like here. It's interesting to keep in mind, as I read it, that technically Jack Spratt and Mary Mary are in a book that exists in the Thursday Next series--the book Thursday uses as a hideout from Goliath as she's expecting her son and trying to get her husband re-actualized. I half expect Thursday to show up at some point, though by the rules of Bookworld we'd never see her....
May 10, 2007
I love Jasper Fforde. I want to have coffee with him, because if he is anything like his books then it would be one hell of a coffee date.
Nursery Rhyme characters are real and live in Reading, U.K. -- Punch and Judy make loud next door neighbors, Humpty Dumpty was murderd last book, the Gingerbread Man is a psychotic killer, and so on.
Rambosians are aliens that have applied for earth citizenship because they love bureaucracy and 1970s sitcoms (many have been granted said citizenship). . .Rambosians speak binary.
Jack Spratt is investigating the death of Goldylocks. If all the porridge was poured at the same time, why did they have such different temperatures?? Was there. . .perhaps. . .a fourth bear?????
Nursery Rhyme characters are real and live in Reading, U.K. -- Punch and Judy make loud next door neighbors, Humpty Dumpty was murderd last book, the Gingerbread Man is a psychotic killer, and so on.
Rambosians are aliens that have applied for earth citizenship because they love bureaucracy and 1970s sitcoms (many have been granted said citizenship). . .Rambosians speak binary.
Jack Spratt is investigating the death of Goldylocks. If all the porridge was poured at the same time, why did they have such different temperatures?? Was there. . .perhaps. . .a fourth bear?????
August 4, 2018
This is Mr. Fforde's take on Goldilocks and the Three Bears and though parts of it are hysterical, too much of a good thing isn't a good thing. Fforde's wordplay and puns are phenomenal but 400 pages of same, got a bit tedious. And there is simply too much going on - Goldilocks's disappearance, alien detectives, a killer gingerbread man, Punch and Judy, a mad bomber and lots of bears because bears have rights too.
I could have done without the whole Punch and Judy thing as that served no purpose and was annoying a hell as was the whole alien's only speak binary which was ridiculous. All in all a fun story but the author just took it too far IMHO.
I could have done without the whole Punch and Judy thing as that served no purpose and was annoying a hell as was the whole alien's only speak binary which was ridiculous. All in all a fun story but the author just took it too far IMHO.
December 21, 2016
Exploding cucumbers and cakes as serial killers. Or is it cookies? And aliens. Conspiracies. Evil corporations. Bears, taking long walks in woods. Greek gods. Wedding planning.
Crazy crazy mix, concocting a hilarious, stunning and surprising story, impossible to read in public, like at all. Spontaneous chuckling and chortling and even cackling happens a lot. A lot.
Crazy crazy mix, concocting a hilarious, stunning and surprising story, impossible to read in public, like at all. Spontaneous chuckling and chortling and even cackling happens a lot. A lot.
June 29, 2008
I really loved this series! Smart and funny; my favorite combination.
May 9, 2011
Highly recommended read (if only to learn who dates Pippa Pepper!)
January 10, 2025
I had hoped that the second book in the series would continue to develop the characters of Jack and his family, because I thought that was a strong part of The Big Over Easy and helped off-set all the nursery rhyme references, of which there were far too many, I thought. However, in The Fourth Bear Fforde doubles down on the convoluted and frankly ridiculous plotting while spending little time with Spratt, even though Spratt's status as a nursery rhyme character himself is revealed to his wife who, up until that time, thought Jack was a regular human being. That entire storyline is brought up then resolved so quickly that I wondered why even bother mentioning it at all.
In the meantime, there's a whole lot of stuff going on related to some guy who likes to set off bombs, bears hooked on oats, the involvement of shady government security agencies in all these activities and, oh yes, the escape of the Gingerbread Man from the mental hospital to which he's been confined for twenty years. Keeping in mind that this is a character who's been talked about since the first book - how incredibly violent and dangerous he is, how Jack was the one who finally caught him (and was traumatized himself in the process) - you'd think that with his escape, Jack would be concerned at the very bloody least, but you'd be wrong. Chapters go by without a thought or mention of the serial killer on the loose; occasionally there's a confrontation, the Gingerbread Man runs away, and that's about it until the next time. There's some connection between him and the bear case Jack in investigating but, to be perfectly honest, I didn't care, which sums up my feelings about most of this book.
In the meantime, there's a whole lot of stuff going on related to some guy who likes to set off bombs, bears hooked on oats, the involvement of shady government security agencies in all these activities and, oh yes, the escape of the Gingerbread Man from the mental hospital to which he's been confined for twenty years. Keeping in mind that this is a character who's been talked about since the first book - how incredibly violent and dangerous he is, how Jack was the one who finally caught him (and was traumatized himself in the process) - you'd think that with his escape, Jack would be concerned at the very bloody least, but you'd be wrong. Chapters go by without a thought or mention of the serial killer on the loose; occasionally there's a confrontation, the Gingerbread Man runs away, and that's about it until the next time. There's some connection between him and the bear case Jack in investigating but, to be perfectly honest, I didn't care, which sums up my feelings about most of this book.
April 9, 2021
I absolutely loved this book, it was so different and unexpected throughout the whole novel that I just had to finish it as soon as possible. It was nice that my suspicions that he was a literary character was right, although I hated the fact that he and Madeline got into a big fight over it. There were so many moments that had me laughing out loud. I think Ashley is absolutely adorable and am looking forward to more of him and Mary in the future. Overall, a lot of what happened was definitely unexpected, but it all worked together in a surprising way. The ending was amazing and if the next book ever comes out, I will definitely be one of the first to read it.
June 19, 2025
This man is my favorite
February 15, 2017
An okay read for me but I definitely like the Thursday Next series much better than this one. I don't know why, I always have trouble getting into Nursery Crimes stories and find them less entertaining than Thursday Next's adventures, hummm...
March 29, 2020
I have always liked the theory of a Jasper Fforde book more than the execution. Fforde has some clever ideas, but he often throws too many of them together, till it stops making sense. The plot bogs down. It's not that funny…
But this was a pleasant exception. For me, at least, "The Fourth Bear" nailed it. Still a lot of funny ideas, but they all make sense. A simple but effective plot. The characters are fleshed out and interesting. Excellent villains, including the Gingerbreadman assassin. And again, super original and funny.
> Vinnie kicked the bike into life, revved the engine, clonked it into first and tore off up the road with a screech of tire. "You know what this means?" said Jack as Vinnie Craps vanished from view around a bend in the road. "That the singular 'screech of tire' looks and sounds wrong even if it's quite correct?" "No.
> "Yes, but I'm not a Jack Spratt, I'm the Jack Spratt, as in 'who could eat no fat.'" She looked at him with a furrowed brow, unsure of what to say. "'Whose wife could eat no lean'?" … "Yes," said Jack softly, laying a hand on her arm, "I'm actually a character from a nursery rhyme. I'm a PDR, sweetheart, and have been from the moment I was born." … "Why does it always have to be about you? Can't I be a PDR in my own right?" It was a good point. "It's not likely. In the nursery world, surnames nearly always make good rhymes. Horner/corner, Spratt/fat, Hubbard/cupboard. Your maiden name of 'Usher' doesn't rhyme with much except 'gusher' and… 'flusher.'" … "Nothing's changed, Madeleine," said Jack soothingly. "I'm still the same Jack Spratt!" "You might have told me you weren't real!" she blurted out. "I am real," he implored. "In a collective-consciousness, postmodern, zeitgeisty sort of way."
> Jack patted him on the arm. "This reminds me of the time when you heard her say she loved Keats—only to find out she wanted to have two—a boy and a girl."
> "On reflection it might be a good idea to find out that she was murdered," said Briggs matter-of-factly, "and for you to then foul it all up. I've got a PR disaster over the lack of progress on the Gingerbreadman case, and I was hoping a bit of well-publicized incompetence by the NCD might draw the flak, so to speak." "I'll see what we can arrange," said Mary agreeably, trying to act how she thought Jack might.
> "This is the plan," announced Jack. "We find out the story Goldilocks was working on. If it was big enough to have her killed, then it's as big as she boasted. Four unexplained fireballs with world-class cucumber growers at the center of three of them."
> Do you have any more wild accusations, or do I have to complain about your conduct to the Chief Constable?" "That's all the wild accusations we have for now," said Jack loftily, attempting to pull some remnant of dignity from the wreckage.
> "Cripps, Katzenberg, Prong and Fuchsia just thought they were growing heavy cucumbers, but McGuffin, flitting around with his Men in Green in the background, was changing, crossbreeding, bioengineering and reseeding until he had created a devastatingly destructive power that could be created in a grow bag with nothing more complex than a dibbler and a watering can." "You mean…?" "Right," growled Jack. "Cuclear energy." They all fell silent, pondering on the geopolitical ramifications of such a discovery. "Hold on a sec," added Jack in a worried tone. "Fuchsia's champion was almost at fifty kilos, and he had six others nearly as large that were stolen this morning—where the hell are they now?" "There were seven thermocuclear devices?" queried Parks, who had latched on to Jack's outlandish explanation without too much difficulty, as should you.
> A tube from a bottle was leading into the giant vegetable, with a time switch metering the weight-gaining contents. The digital scale read 49.997 kilos, and already the cucumber's smooth skin was turning from green to a dark orange and giving out large quantities of heat—the paint on the van's sides was starting to blister. They both stared at it blankly for a few seconds. "I don't know the first thing about disarming thermocuclear devices," admitted Jack, the fear rising in his voice. Bomb disposal was usually a case of cutting the blue wire, but there weren't any wires in sight
> "So are you saying that all the nuclear strain of cucumbers have been destroyed?" "No—Fuchsia told me that his 'Alpha-Pickle' was snipped off the main stalk last night. That's the sole remaining cucumber. Whoever possesses that has almost unthinkable riches and power within his grasp." … McGuffin says it's all got horribly out of hand, and although limitless free energy is a positive step, the idea that any nation that possesses an average-size greenhouse and a trowel can have a nuclear capability is a bit of a downer—despite the truly spectacular fireballs, which he says he'll miss." … Nick Demetrios died from multiple crush injuries. The recovered briefcase contained notes relating to the highly improbable idea of using auto-deuterium-extracting cucumbers as fuel for a Cold Ignition Fusion reaction. Such an idea is quite impossible and belongs in the realms of loony pseudoscience. The briefcase also included a pickle, presumably his lunch. It was consigned to the waste-bin
> To the master himself, Jonathan Swift, for the initial inspiration for this novel: He had been eight years upon a project for extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers, which were to be put in vials hermetically sealed, and let out to warm the air in raw inclement summers.
But this was a pleasant exception. For me, at least, "The Fourth Bear" nailed it. Still a lot of funny ideas, but they all make sense. A simple but effective plot. The characters are fleshed out and interesting. Excellent villains, including the Gingerbreadman assassin. And again, super original and funny.
> Vinnie kicked the bike into life, revved the engine, clonked it into first and tore off up the road with a screech of tire. "You know what this means?" said Jack as Vinnie Craps vanished from view around a bend in the road. "That the singular 'screech of tire' looks and sounds wrong even if it's quite correct?" "No.
> "Yes, but I'm not a Jack Spratt, I'm the Jack Spratt, as in 'who could eat no fat.'" She looked at him with a furrowed brow, unsure of what to say. "'Whose wife could eat no lean'?" … "Yes," said Jack softly, laying a hand on her arm, "I'm actually a character from a nursery rhyme. I'm a PDR, sweetheart, and have been from the moment I was born." … "Why does it always have to be about you? Can't I be a PDR in my own right?" It was a good point. "It's not likely. In the nursery world, surnames nearly always make good rhymes. Horner/corner, Spratt/fat, Hubbard/cupboard. Your maiden name of 'Usher' doesn't rhyme with much except 'gusher' and… 'flusher.'" … "Nothing's changed, Madeleine," said Jack soothingly. "I'm still the same Jack Spratt!" "You might have told me you weren't real!" she blurted out. "I am real," he implored. "In a collective-consciousness, postmodern, zeitgeisty sort of way."
> Jack patted him on the arm. "This reminds me of the time when you heard her say she loved Keats—only to find out she wanted to have two—a boy and a girl."
> "On reflection it might be a good idea to find out that she was murdered," said Briggs matter-of-factly, "and for you to then foul it all up. I've got a PR disaster over the lack of progress on the Gingerbreadman case, and I was hoping a bit of well-publicized incompetence by the NCD might draw the flak, so to speak." "I'll see what we can arrange," said Mary agreeably, trying to act how she thought Jack might.
> "This is the plan," announced Jack. "We find out the story Goldilocks was working on. If it was big enough to have her killed, then it's as big as she boasted. Four unexplained fireballs with world-class cucumber growers at the center of three of them."
> Do you have any more wild accusations, or do I have to complain about your conduct to the Chief Constable?" "That's all the wild accusations we have for now," said Jack loftily, attempting to pull some remnant of dignity from the wreckage.
> "Cripps, Katzenberg, Prong and Fuchsia just thought they were growing heavy cucumbers, but McGuffin, flitting around with his Men in Green in the background, was changing, crossbreeding, bioengineering and reseeding until he had created a devastatingly destructive power that could be created in a grow bag with nothing more complex than a dibbler and a watering can." "You mean…?" "Right," growled Jack. "Cuclear energy." They all fell silent, pondering on the geopolitical ramifications of such a discovery. "Hold on a sec," added Jack in a worried tone. "Fuchsia's champion was almost at fifty kilos, and he had six others nearly as large that were stolen this morning—where the hell are they now?" "There were seven thermocuclear devices?" queried Parks, who had latched on to Jack's outlandish explanation without too much difficulty, as should you.
> A tube from a bottle was leading into the giant vegetable, with a time switch metering the weight-gaining contents. The digital scale read 49.997 kilos, and already the cucumber's smooth skin was turning from green to a dark orange and giving out large quantities of heat—the paint on the van's sides was starting to blister. They both stared at it blankly for a few seconds. "I don't know the first thing about disarming thermocuclear devices," admitted Jack, the fear rising in his voice. Bomb disposal was usually a case of cutting the blue wire, but there weren't any wires in sight
> "So are you saying that all the nuclear strain of cucumbers have been destroyed?" "No—Fuchsia told me that his 'Alpha-Pickle' was snipped off the main stalk last night. That's the sole remaining cucumber. Whoever possesses that has almost unthinkable riches and power within his grasp." … McGuffin says it's all got horribly out of hand, and although limitless free energy is a positive step, the idea that any nation that possesses an average-size greenhouse and a trowel can have a nuclear capability is a bit of a downer—despite the truly spectacular fireballs, which he says he'll miss." … Nick Demetrios died from multiple crush injuries. The recovered briefcase contained notes relating to the highly improbable idea of using auto-deuterium-extracting cucumbers as fuel for a Cold Ignition Fusion reaction. Such an idea is quite impossible and belongs in the realms of loony pseudoscience. The briefcase also included a pickle, presumably his lunch. It was consigned to the waste-bin
> To the master himself, Jonathan Swift, for the initial inspiration for this novel: He had been eight years upon a project for extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers, which were to be put in vials hermetically sealed, and let out to warm the air in raw inclement summers.
August 5, 2025
Such a fun read and I’m glad that I came back to it- writing style is so whimsical and enjoyable with so many witty comments and references. Just wish he wrote the third book but doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen. Will try his Thursday Next series now
May 1, 2025
Buzzwordathon Book for April: an animal in the title.
Clever story-telling. The alien stuff was especially odd and funny.
Clever story-telling. The alien stuff was especially odd and funny.
November 6, 2022
Anders als Band 1 aber sehr solide.
Ich wurde besser unterhalten als erwartet.
Neues Wrot gelernt: "Hullo"
Ich wurde besser unterhalten als erwartet.
Neues Wrot gelernt: "Hullo"
November 8, 2016
DCI Jack Spratt's life as head of the Nursery Crime Division comes with its perils, and this story is no exception. Lambasted by the media after Red Riding Hood and her gran get eaten by a wolf, Jack is supposed to hand the reins to his number 2, Detective Sergeant Mary Mary. But then Goldilocks, a local journalist and Friend To Bears, goes missing after interviewing a prize cucumber grower who was then killed in a massive explosion that took out half the village of Obscurity. Is this somehow linked to a local porridge oat-smuggling operation run out of the bears' apartment block in Reading? Why did Goldilocks visit the Three Bears' cottage in the Forest just before she disappeared? To make matters worse, the psychopathic genius, the Gingerbreadman, has escaped from the supposedly secure asylum where he was incarcerated. The ordinary police are plainly incompetent to handle the situation.
This is another hilarious, clever, genre-bending tale from Jasper Fforde. For those unfamiliar with his sheer joy of language and playfulness, the opening of the book says it all. If this isn't you, read something else instead ...
"The little village of Obscurity is remarkable only for its unremarkableness. Passed over for inclusion in almost every publication from the Domesday Book to Thirty Places Not Worth Visiting in Berkshire, the small hamlet is also a cartographic omission, an honour it shares with the neighbouring villages of Hiding and Cognito. Indeed, the status of Obscurity was once thought so tenuous that some of the more philosophically inclined residents considered the possibility that since the village didn't exist then they might not exist either, and hurriedly placed 'existential state of being' on the parish council agenda, where it still resides, after much unresolved discussion, between 'church roof fund' and 'any other business'."
This is another hilarious, clever, genre-bending tale from Jasper Fforde. For those unfamiliar with his sheer joy of language and playfulness, the opening of the book says it all. If this isn't you, read something else instead ...
"The little village of Obscurity is remarkable only for its unremarkableness. Passed over for inclusion in almost every publication from the Domesday Book to Thirty Places Not Worth Visiting in Berkshire, the small hamlet is also a cartographic omission, an honour it shares with the neighbouring villages of Hiding and Cognito. Indeed, the status of Obscurity was once thought so tenuous that some of the more philosophically inclined residents considered the possibility that since the village didn't exist then they might not exist either, and hurriedly placed 'existential state of being' on the parish council agenda, where it still resides, after much unresolved discussion, between 'church roof fund' and 'any other business'."
October 12, 2007
Jack Spratt and his NCD (Nursery Crime Division) team must solve the murder of Goldilocks (in a politically-sensitive modern climate of bear activism and rampant ursism) while tracking down the escaped psycho-killer known as the Ginger Bread Man, all while Jack is under suspension and being outed as a PDR (a person of dubious reality) himself. Jack has a great new car he bought from dealer Dorian Gray that instantly repairs itself--as long as a certain painting remains intact.... Also not to be missed: "Somme World," a new theme park that simulates the experience of being in the trenches during one of WWI's most pointless and costly battles. Fun for the whole family! (On a personal note, last year when I had my Satire class read "The Well of Lost Plots," some of the students decided that Jasper Fforde looked like me, ergo I might actually be Jasper Fforde. Can I just say, I'd have no objections to that at all! Who has more fun with literature than Jasper Fforde, I ask you?)
March 25, 2013
Oh, goodness, I'm not even sure where to start. The Gingerbread Man is a psychotic killer who escapes from jail. Goldilocks is found dead in a partly-finished WWI theme park. Sinister events plague the cutthroat world of competitive cucumber-growing. Bears deal in illicit porridge paraphernalia. Punch and Judy are marriage counselors. The whole thing is absolutely ridiculous, but Detective Jack Spratt is on the case. I got quite a few chuckles out of this one, but most of the really good laughs were from the excerpts from The Barkshire Bumper Book of Records at the beginning of each chapter. If you're familiar with nursery rhymes and enjoy absurd humor, you'll probably enjoy this one. I don't know how well it stands on its own, but as the sequel to The Big Over Easy it's quite entertaining. Too bad Fforde hasn't written any more in this series.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,426 reviews