'The combination of fantasy and a (more or less) classic murder.
embellished with the rich details of a Dickens or Pratchett. THE BIG OVER EASY is great not just because it's very funny but also because it works properly as a whodunnit. Now humour is notoriously subjective so what I've just described might just sound plain daft to you. ( Observer)Ī riot of puns, in-jokes and literary allusions that Fforde carries off with aplomb ( Daily Mail )Ī riot of puns, in-jokes and literary allusions that Fforde carries off with aplomb ( Daily Mail) THE BIG OVER EASY is great not just because it's very funny.but also because it works properly as a whodunit.Comic genius. Not so! No child could appreciate the dazzling wordplay and witty imagination on offer here, and most readers will be more than happy to encounter detective Inspector Jack Spratt (and his contrary sidekick kick Mary Mary) again and again. The skill in this outrageously entertaining (and rigorously plotted) concoction lies in a double conjuring trick: we are always amazed to find ourselves reading so assiduously about ludicrous figures (who become quite as interesting heroes as, say, Philip Marlowe) when common sense dictates only children should find such conceits entertaining. This isn't quite the Fforde mixture as before, although he has previously favoured a crime motor for his plots. Detective Inspector Jack Spratt and his colleague Mary Mary are assigned to the case, and soon find themselves knee-deep in money-laundering, bullion smuggling and major problems with beanstalks. The perpetrator would appear to be his ex-wife, but she has shot herself. Minor baronet Humpty Stuyvesant Van Dumpty III has been found dead-and in pieces-beneath a wall in a less salubrious area of town.
Rather in the fashion in which Stephen Sondheim exploded the world of fairytale in Into the Woods, Fforde here brings all the apparatus of the tough crime thriller to bear on the nursery rhyme. Fforde’s speciality has long been the outrageous teasing of narrative forms, and there's a measure of that here, although more disciplined than in earlier books. And whether or not those expectations will be met by this new book depends on the readiness of readers to strike out in new directions-just as the author has done. But now that his readership has expanded immeasurably, the expectations for such books as The Big Over Easy are considerable. The word of mouth on Jasper Fforde has long been enthusiastic, among those in the know.
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