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Critics' Opinion:
Readers' Opinion:
First Published:
Jul 2005, 400 pages
Paperback:
Jul 2006, 400 pages
Book Reviewed by:
BookBrowse Review Team
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It's Easter in Reading—a bad time for eggs. Ovoid D-class nursery celebrity, Humpty Stuyvesant Van Dumpty III, is found shattered to death. Detective Inspector Jack Spratt and his assistant Mary Mary are on the case and before long find themselves grappling with a sinister plot involving cross-border money laundering, beanstalks, titans seeking asylum, and the cut and thrust world of international chiropody.
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 . . .
1. Mary Mary
If Queen Anne hadn't suffered so badly from Gout and Dropsy,
Reading might never have developed at all. In 1702 the unhealthy Queen Anne,
looking for a place to ease her Royal infirmities, chanced upon Bath; and where
Royalty goes, so too does society. In consequence, Reading, up until that time a
small town on a smaller tributary of the Thames, became a busy staging post on
the Bath road, later to become the A4, and ultimately the M4. The town was
enriched by the wool trade and later played host to several large firms that
were to become household names. By the time Huntley & Palmers biscuits began
here in 1822, Simonds brewery was already well established; and when Suttons
Seeds began in 1835 and Spongg's footcare in 1853, the town's prosperity was
assured.
—Excerpt from A History of Reading
It was the week following Easter in Reading, and no one could remember the last sunny day. Gray clouds swept across the sky, borne ...
If you've enjoyed the Thursday Next series and appreciate a little bit of 'silliness', then this might be for you, but if literary slapstick isn't your cup of tea, you should probably steer clear!
(Reviewed by BookBrowse Review Team).
Full Review
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Fforde's
first book, The Eyre Affair,
was published in 2001, and was
followed by Lost In A Good
Book (2002), The Well of
Lost Plots (2003) and
Something Rotten (2004). All
revolve around, female
detective, Thursday Next who
lives in a parallel world to our
own where books are paramount,
the Crimean War is still ongoing
and dodos are the pets of
choice.
Fforde says that he felt the
need to take a break and, to
that end, resurrected the
concept for a novel that he'd
first written ...
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