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)

Prebble perfect narrator for this humour

So clever! Sneaky humour throughout, some making me have to pause and tell someone, some causing grins and internal chuckles. Great book. Moving right to no 2, then back into Fforde’s “Thursday Next” series.

Eggsellent as usual

Jasper Fforde never fails. This one took me a couple of chapters to get into, but it was worth the wait. Not as awesome as the Thursday Next series, but still quite enjoyable.

Great book, and Excellent Narrator

Simon Prebble is a fabulous voice talent. His voices add depth and interest to an already fun book. I found this book to be as much fun as the 1st book in the Thursday Next series was.

UNIQUELY ENTERTAINING

I thought this was a delightful listen all the way through. I realize that it won't be everyone's cup of tea, but if you have a taste for the absurd you should try it. Tuesday Next is one of my favorite series and the Nursery Crimes are just as fun. I eagerly await "The Fourth Bear" which will come out next summer. The narrator was perfect.

Comedic Genius

A friend introduced me to Jasper Fforde. I loved this book and laughed the whole way through. The narrator was amazing, too.

Great, easy listen

Would you listen to The Big Over Easy again? Why?

yes, fun to listen to.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

Yes, it kept putting in new twitsts

What does Simon Prebble bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I love the accent and his great reading.

Not your average fairy tale

I've been a Jasper Fforde fan for years, and although this series isn't (yet) as good as his early Tuesday Next stuff, not much in the world is. I like how he treats children's characters in a different and definitely adult way. The "turn of phrase" Fforde is famous for isn't quite as evident, but he's managed to entwine, twist and turn the plots of quite a few children's stories into an engaging and complex "whodunnitandhow". Kudos to Prebble for not chuckling over the absurdities while he's reading them.

a little long winded

there is so much going on in this that i'm sure I missed many of the tongue in cheek references. but it was still a good deal of fun.

Light-Hearted (Mostly) Murder

I am most familiar with Jasper Fforde from the Thursday Next stories, and much of the wit and literary world-view is also on display here. The Nursery Crime Division focuses on crimes committed by and to nursery rhyme characters, but Jack Spratt doesn't appear to know that he is one. Detective Sargent Mary Mary provides a good foil, but much of the book had me wishing that we were seeing events from her perspective.

While I wasn't blown away by this (as I admit I was by "The Eyre Affair"), this story was a perfectly good romp, and I fully intend to listen to the next in the series, "The Fourth Bear".

I may have been drinking when I purchased this

Nonetheless, I was delightful lighthearted listening! I’m getting the next one today. And if there are more....