The Fourth Bear

A Nursery Crime

By: Jasper Fforde

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

The Gingerbreadman, psychopath, sadist, genius, and killer, is on the loose. But it isn't Jack Spratt's case. He and Mary Mary have been demoted to Missing Persons following Jack's poor judgment involving the poisoning of Mr. Bun the baker. Missing Persons looks like a boring assignment until a chance encounter leads them into the hunt for missing journalist Henrietta "Goldy" Hatchett, star reporter for The Daily Mole. Last to see her alive? The Three Bears, comfortably living out a life of rural solitude in Andersen's wood.

But all is not what it seems. How could the bears' porridge be at such disparate temperatures when they were poured at the same time? Why did Mr. and Mrs. Bear sleep in separate beds? Was there a fourth bear? And if there was, who was he, and why did he try to disguise Goldy's death as a freak accident?

Jack answers all these questions and a few others besides, rescues Mary Mary from almost certain death, and finally meets the Fourth Bear and the Gingerbreadman face-to-face.

©2006 Jasper Fforde (P)2006 Penguin Audio, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., and Books on Tape

Critic reviews

"Jasper Fforde is able to write diabolically.... Outrageous satirical agility is his stock in trade." (The New York Times)

"Like the creators of...The Simpsons and South Park, Mr. Fforde uses fantasy to dissect real life.... He is our best thinking person's genre writer." (The Washington Times)

"Mr. Fforde manages to bombard the reader with more bizarre detail than most writers would dare to fit in their entire oeuvre, yet he does so with...light prose and easy, confident wit." (The Wall Street Journal)

narrator is brilliant

the pacing is slow, the characters are pretty flat, but the world is rich and alive, fun, silly, dark, and mysterious. jasper fforde is cheeky as usual, and the narration, apart from Mary Mary, is perfect and brilliant and really brings each character to life. all in all a fun listen.

Great, as usual.

I read this book not long after it was published. The audio version was just as wonderful.

Great listen

This is so enjoyable. There are only 2 books in the series; they don't have to be done in order but it helps.
The first and also exetremely worthwhile book is 'The Big Overeasy'. I hope that everyone listens to these and delights in them like I have.

A must for Ffordeophiles

I read Over Easy: A Nusery Crime and couldn't get enough. This is the funniest book I've read in a while and NEED to read more. Super sharp wit. I would recommend this and any Jasper Fforde story that comes along. Simon Vance gives excellent voice.

Very fun

Having read all the Tuesday Next series, I tried this. It is just as good. The reader of this book is kind of understated, but he is very good. His style may take getting used to if you listened to the Tuesday Next books--he's more deadpan. Still an excellent reader and the book is absorbing and entertaining.

So much fun on so many levels

Loved this book! Outside the box creativity. I loved the humor,the story,the mystery. Excellently narrated.

Fforde is one of my ffavorite humans.

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I love these books!!!

I have listened to both books in this series and read the entire Thursday Next series and Jasper Fforde is one of my favorite authors.

Clever pastiche detective story

I think Jasper Fforde is a genius, but I think the Thursday Next books are a big step up from the Nursery Crime series. All the same, Fforde proves he is the master of any genre he puts his mind to, so if he wants to do a straight up detective story in a world populated by nursery rhyme characters, it's going to be hilarious while upholding all the rules and conventions you would expect. I liked this sequel to The Big Over Easy better than the first one. It felt better integrated and relied less on contrivances. The characters started to fill out a bit (and who would you guess Jack goes to for marriage counseling?), but they still fall short of the standards set by Thursday Next. I suspect it's really hard to keep coming up with books of the calibre required by Thursday Next, so I'm happy to spend time with Fforde's other books in between.

A Little Boring, Still So Creative

I absolutely LOVE this author’s style. Anyone who can take nursery rhymes and create murder mysteries replete with humor and satire is a major plus in my book.
In the second installment of the Nursery Crime series, the Goldilocks and the Three Bears are caught in a national conspiracy and the Gingerbread Man is blood thirsty as ever. Obviously this is not a nail-biter (unless you suffer from Mother Goose phobia) but it is certainly clever.
My only issue is that there are times when the story was a little boring and nothing irks me more in a mystery than when characters are introduced at the last minute who end up playing a pivotal role in the plot. I feel like it’s a cop out and it cheapens the story.
In any case, I do recommend this book if anything for the humor and to marvel at the twisted lives of our much beloved nursery rhymes.
Lastly, I will add, that the narrator of this book is AMAZING. Loved listening to every minute!