The Fourth Bear: A Nursery Crime
by Jasper Fforde
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jasper FfordeEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Published)
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2006-08-03
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 382
Publisher: Viking Penguin
Book Reviews of The Fourth Bear: A Nursery Crime
Book Review: Outrageous Fun!
Summary: 5 Stars
When was the last time you read a totally off-the-wall novel that stretched your imagination past where it had ever been before? Much as I've enjoyed Mr. Fforde's earlier works (The Big Over Easy in this series and The Eyre Affair, Lost in a Good Book, The Well of Lost Plots and Something Rotten in the Thursday Next series), The Fourth Bear took me to new and more interesting places than I had enjoyed in many years. It was much like the experience of first reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
The Nursery Crime Division is back again with Jack Spratt, Mary Mary and Ashley (the alien) pursuing offbeat crimes involving Persons of Dubious Reality (fictional characters). As usual, the members of NCD are constantly being shunted aside, put on probation and ordered off serious cases. But they soldier on in hilarious offbeat fashion. We get to know each of them better in this novel as the story extends to include their relations with the opposite sex.
There are so many oddball threads to this story that you'll wonder how in the world they might be connected. But it doesn't really matter, because each page is full of standalone wit, satire and outrageous good fun.
I hesitate to describe much about the book except to note that it features a homicidal killer, the Gingerbreadman, who is a sort of edible version of an angry Wookie. He likes to tear the arms off his victims. You'll learn a lot about cucumbers and their potential. In addition, the hidden side of several storybook characters will be revealed in surprising ways.
As in The Big Over Easy, the overall novel is written as a police procedural (which aspect itself is quite a satire of the genre). There are solid clues embedded throughout that will safely lead you to the right conclusions . . . if you can stop goggling over the very funny material on every page long enough to pay attention to the clues.
I had an immediate urge to reread the book as soon as I finished it. I cannot remember the last time I had that reaction to a novel.
Be prepared for un-ending laughter!
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