#61 The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde

My Rating: 7 out of 10 stars

Humpty Stuyvesant Van Dumpty III, minor baronet, ex-convict, and former millionaire philanthropist, is found shattered to death beneath a wall in a shabby area of town. Preliminary investigations at the Reading Police Department suspect no ill intent, that Mr. Dumpty simply fell off the wall because he'd had too much to drink at the charity benefit earlier that evening. But Detective Inspector Jack Spratt and his assistant Mary Mary of the Nursery Crime Division (NCD) keep turning up clues to the contrary.

But they'll need to find enough solid evidence to get a conviction—particularly after the failure to convict the Three Pigs in the murder of Mr. Wolff which wasted so much time and resources—in order to receive continued funding for their division. And who knows... they may just get their story published in the most popular public crime magazine, Amazing Crime Stories, in the process!

This was my first introduction to Jasper Fforde. Though I have her Thursday Next series here, I hadn't yet found a chance to read them. And from what I've read here and elsewhere, those are even better than this. :-) That said, I did enjoy this little romp through Nursery rhyme time. I can't say it was laugh out loud funny, but it was certainly worth a chuckle or two, enough so that I'll be looking forward to reading The Fourth Bear. Apparently I'm endeared enough towards Jack Spratt and Mary Mary to find out what happens to them in the future. ;-)

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