The Big Over Easy

A Nursery Crime

By: Jasper Fforde

Narrated by: Simon Prebble

Length: 11 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

It's Easter in Reading, a bad time for eggs, and no one can remember the last sunny day. Ovoid D-class nursery celebrity 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. All the evidence points to his ex-wife, who has conveniently shot herself.

But Detective Inspector Jack Spratt and his assistant Mary Mary remain unconvinced, a sentiment not shared with their superiors at the Reading Police Department, who are still smarting over their failure to convict the Three Pigs of murdering Mr. Wolff. Before long Jack and Mary find themselves grappling with a sinister plot involving cross-border money laundering, bullion smuggling, problems with beanstalks, titans seeking asylum, and the cut and thrust world of international chiropody.

And on top of all that, the JellyMan is coming to town.

The familiar and utterly transformed characters and world of nursery crime is pure ingenious fun. Just when you thought he'd stretched his astonishing imagination to the limit, Jasper Fforde does it again with this dazzling new series.

©2005 Jasper Fforde. All Rights Reserved (P)2005 Penguin Audio and BBC Audiobooks America. All Rights Reserved.

Critic reviews

"Fforde's whimsical fifth novel, his first not to feature literary detective Thursday Next, is consistently witty....The result is unusually clever." (Publishers Weekly)
"Fforde is gaining fans, and even readers who start out groaning may find themselves grinning." (Booklist)

Great, clever fun listen!

This was such a fun and clever book and the narration was wonderful. I didn’t want it to end. Looking forward to the sequel.

It wasn't the butler but...

I grew up in the 70s on a steady diet of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple and Poirot, Dorothy L. Sayer's Lord Wimsey, Ngiao Marsh's Inspector Allyn and PD James' Dalgliesh. Not only that but a steady diet of both Ellery Queen, Alfred Hitchcock and other popular mystery anthology magazines. Add to that Charlie Chan movies, various Dashiell Hammett movies and a whole host of 70's shows like Columbo and you have a good idea of all of the things that made up my love of mysteries.

Take all of that, toss it in a blender and add Monty Python and Murder By Death, add a healthy portion of intelligence and you get Jasper Fforde's Nursery Crime series. Humor in a world where literary characters exist and literary tropes are lampooned and puffed up and then pricked to deflate provide you with a dense buffet of delicious satire.

Even if you don't have the background to get all of the little in-jokes, you'l still enjoy the riotous romp filled with twists and turns, all the way to the end where you can finally find out who-dun-it!

Very entertaining

Like all of Mr. Fforde's stories, The Big Over Easy is light and witty. I found it very enjoyable to listen to at the gym and in my car. I love this narrator as well. It was a nice break after the 2 true crime books I listened to right before this one. I look forward hearing more from this author.

Loved it!!!

If you are a Brit, or an Anglophile, you will get even more out of this book. I had to listen to it twice, and I had to slow the delivery down slightly so I didn't miss anything. It's wonderful! The Whimsy and the way of looking at The World Slightly upside down is so good for the soul! I look forward to the 4th, and hopefully even more!

A Cracking Good Listen

I read this book in highschool about ten years ago. Listening to it now I still found it fun, engaging, and only on-the-nose enough to laugh but no enough to engage in full-fledged eye-rolling. It is smart and has encouraged me to listen to more of Ffjord's other books and series.

Good mystery, cleverly written

Jasper Fforde doesn't miss any details in this cleverly conceived and presented detective mystery. The premise is wonderful and presented so smoothly that you forget to spend any time at all considering it silly or contrived. He does not simply leave you enjoying his wit and imagination, however, since he weaves all this into a very good mystery story with plenty of twists and turns. The narration is, of course, classic Simon Prebble and therefore practically perfect.

One of my Favorites

I can listen to this story over and over. A who-dun-it with twists and turns that will keep you guessing until the very end.

A Crazy Combination of Mystery and Humor

Light fun listening. Everything that you wanted to know since you were two years old.

Detective Inspector Jack Spratt Unscambles the Egg

Most of his colleagues think Detective Spratt is washed up and about to be put out of the Reading Police Department's murder squad. The case of Humpty Dumpty's murder might just be the one to end his career. From early on in the novel you are on Spratt's side. He is too lovable a character and actually too effective a policeman for such a fate. His new, ambitious and initially doubtful junior partner learns this over time and becomes one of his most ardent supporters. The book sustains its suspense throughout, offering up lots of comedy and tears along the way.

Not up to his usual standards

I loved the Thursday Next series and expected to like this book, too. I didn't. It wasn't witty, it wasn't clever, it wasn't even interesting. I haven't given up on this author, because I know he usually does better. I'd just like to warn others to skip this one. If you have read his Thursday Next books, this one will be a disappointment.