The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde

[Vertigo]

Journalist Henrietta ‘Goldilocks’ Hatchett has disappeared just before breaking a story about unexplained exploding cucumbers. She was last seen alive by the Three Bears and now Detective Jack Spratt and his sidekick Mary Mary must unravel the mystery that seems to keep leading them back to the Quangle Wangle and his vast corporate empire. Along the way Spratt must deal with Punch and Judy - the neighbours from hell – bears dealing in illicit porridge and honey, the psychopathic Gingerbread man and the First World War theme park of Sommeworld and much other silliness.

However, behind all that abundant silliness, that will keep the reader chuckling rather than rolling-on-the-floor-laughing-out-loud, Forde has crafted a very good piece of police procedural, not my normal preferred genre but all that chuckling does sweeten it and make for a very enjoyable read.

These Nursery Crime novels are rather more accessible than Fforde’s other similar series, the Thursday Next literary fiction books, largely because most of us are rather more familiar with our nursery rhymes than with our Dickens, Bronte, Austen, etc. There’s a lot of well written fun to be had in these pages but, for me at least, it’s something I can only take in small doses. I will certainly read more of Fforde’s work but probably not for a little while.

4/5 stars

 

[The Judge]

I read this last year, the first of his Nursery Crimes I'd picked up though I've read a few of the Thursday Next books. I had much the same reaction as you -- great fun, I wouldn't want another one too quickly afterwards. I particularly liked Jack himself, and way he tries so hard to conceal the significance of his dietary habits.

 

[Vertigo]

PDR: Person of Dubious Reality. What a great acronym. I also like that he has hidden a number of moral judgements, mainly regarding intolerance, throughout the book without getting all preachy about it. Like his wife's reaction on discovering he is a PDR, where both her reaction and his hiding of it are quietly criticised.

 

[Dave]

These Nursery Crime novels are rather more accessible than Fforde’s other similar series, the Thursday Next literary fiction books, largely because most of us are rather more familiar with our nursery rhymes than with our Dickens, Bronte, Austen, etc.

I'd have to agree with that. Having never read Jane Eyre, I'm sure that much was lost on me in the Thursday Next books.

In fact, I'm fairly sure that I will have missed some of the jokes in this too. They are very niche. For instance, I've done quite a few door-step interviews for work and one of the strange things I have noticed is that on big housing estates, no one ever changes the name tag on their door bells and the vast majority of houses therefore still have the manufacturers name on the piece of paper inside the door bell push, where you are meant to write your own surname. The manufacturer? Friedland. Now, I ask you, who else has ever got that joke?

 

[Dave]

I now see other connections between Jane Austen and what you could call "Fforde country" - that mid-Wales to Swindon, including Hereford, Wiltshire and Somerset, region that most of, if not all, his books are set within, even if alternative reality versions. I just visited Bath and Wiltshire last week, and they are very big on Jane Austen in Bath. They have a museum and a week-long annual festival, despite her only living there for three years. Bath was an influence on, and features in, several of her novels. She was also born in Stevedon, Hampshire and later lived and wrote at Chawton, both only a little further east.

 

[Laura R Hepworth]

I read this book a few years ago and absolutely loved it! Fforde's writing is just so clever. I can't wait for him to finally release the book three in this series.

 

[Dave]

I can't wait for him to finally release the book three in this series.

In his most recent book, Early Riser, he apologises for his two-year gap in writing and says that he is back to completing some promised but unfinished books.

 

[Laura R Hepworth]

In his most recent book, Early Riser, he apologises for his two-year gap in writing and says that he is back to completing some promised but unfinished books.

I saw that on his website too. He gives a vague outline of which books will be coming out first, but neither book 3 of Nursery Crimes nor book 8 of Thursday Next are listed yet .