"The Gingerbreadman - psychopath, sadist, genius, convicted murderer and cookie - is loose in the streets of Reading. But Jack Sprat doesn't get th...
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Sep 07, 2008
Joel
rated it: 
So far, this is my favorite of the Jasper Fforde books. The wordplay and puns just keep on coming, but I also enjoyed the meta-fictional elements going on here. Storybook characters who know they're storybook characters (or, in Fforde's parlance, Persons of Dubious Reality), plot devices named and numbered, even comments on flat characters (the sadness of knowing you aren't fully developed) and jokes that are too much of a stretch.
As far as the Nursery Crimes go, this one is a beauty More...
As far as the Nursery Crimes go, this one is a beauty More...
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Oct 12, 2007
Mark
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Jack Spratt and his NCD (Nursery Crime Division) team must solve the murder of Goldilocks (in a politically-sensitive modern climate of bear activism and rampant ursism) while tracking down the escaped psycho-killer known as the Ginger Bread Man, all while Jack is under suspension and being outed as a PDR (a person of dubious reality) himself. Jack has a great new car he bought from dealer Dorian Gray that instantly repairs itself--as long as a certain painting remains intact.... Also not to be
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May 19, 2008
Sfdreams
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In this second book in the Nursery Crimes series, the Nursery Crimes Division is once again in disfavor after the Red Riding Hood debacle. So when the Gingerbreadman, a heinous serial killer that Jack Spratt caught years ago, escapes from the criminally insane asylum where he has be incarcerated, the case is given to DCI David Copperfield instead. This leaves Jack Spratt to investigate the disappearance of Goldilocks while trying to avoid the mandated psychiatric evaluation his superiors have r
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May 09, 2007
Taylor
rated it:
I love Jasper Fforde. I want to have coffee with him, because if he is anything like his books then it would be one hell of a coffee date.
Nursery Rhyme characters are real and live in Reading, U.K. -- Punch and Judy make loud next door neighbors, Humpty Dumpty was murderd last book, the Gingerbread Man is a psychotic killer, and so on.
Rambosians are aliens that have applied for earth citizenship because they love bureaucracy and 1970s sitcoms (many have been granted sai More...
Nursery Rhyme characters are real and live in Reading, U.K. -- Punch and Judy make loud next door neighbors, Humpty Dumpty was murderd last book, the Gingerbread Man is a psychotic killer, and so on.
Rambosians are aliens that have applied for earth citizenship because they love bureaucracy and 1970s sitcoms (many have been granted sai More...
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Jan 12, 2011
Lis
rated it:
At the start of the second Nursery Crime adventure, Jack Spratt and the Nursery Crime Division are experiencing an unaccustomed interval of official approval and public favor, after the successful resolution of the Humpty Dumpty murder.
Naturally, this can't last, and as a direct result of doing his job, Jack has been placed on medical leave. (He successfully captured the Big Bad Wolf—unfortunately after both Grandma and Little Red Riding Hood had been swallowed. He had to go in after t More...
Naturally, this can't last, and as a direct result of doing his job, Jack has been placed on medical leave. (He successfully captured the Big Bad Wolf—unfortunately after both Grandma and Little Red Riding Hood had been swallowed. He had to go in after t More...
Dec 13, 2010
If you haven't read any of Fforde's books, go out and read them now! His fantastic Thursday Next series was more fun than The Timetraveller's Wife, operating partly under a similar chronologically challenged marriage, but Thursday Next was so much damn fun. It is a geek's paradise, millions of obscure literary references, lots of in-jokes for those who've read Wuthering Heights and Charles Dickens' work.
The Fourth Bear is part of a different series, featuring Jack Spratt, head of the More...
The Fourth Bear is part of a different series, featuring Jack Spratt, head of the More...
Nov 28, 2010
Kevin
rated it: 
Who'd have thought that those old nursery rhymes and fairy tales would have had so much going on behind the scenes? Fresh from their largely forgotten triumphs in The Big Over Easy, Jack Spratt, Mary Mary and the rest of the Nursery Crime Division find themselves faced with new challenges.
The psychopathic killer known as the Gingerbread Man is loose, and true to his legend, he runs as fast as he can and you just can't catch him. Added to that, prize cucumbers are disappearing, mysterio More...
The psychopathic killer known as the Gingerbread Man is loose, and true to his legend, he runs as fast as he can and you just can't catch him. Added to that, prize cucumbers are disappearing, mysterio More...
Aug 03, 2010
Rowland
rated it:
The Fourth Bear is the second 'Nursery Crime' novel by Jasper Fforde. DCI Jack Spratt generally does an admirable job with the tiny Nursery Crime Division, but after he uses children as bait in capturing the anti-thumb-sucking Scissor-man (as well as the lapses in the Riding-Hood case, which led to Spratt (among others) being swallowed whole ...)) Superintendent Briggs takes him off active duty until his mental fitness can be checked.
Years earlier Spratt had caught the terrifying Gin More...
Years earlier Spratt had caught the terrifying Gin More...
Mar 30, 2010
Genie
rated it:
As the title suggests, this is Fforde’s take on the tale of the three bears. Jack Spratt, DCI of the Nursery Crime Division of the Reading Police Department, must once again confront his nemesis, the Gingerbreadman, a notorious killer The sadistic and super powerful Gingerbreadman, has escaped from St. Cerebellum's secure hospital for the criminally insane and is once again leaving a trail of victims. Unfortunately, Spratt has been suspended, pending psychological evaluation, because of his mis
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Mar 13, 2010
Deb
rated it:
Laugh out loud funny in several parts! Another very clever and witty entry in Jasper Fforde's body of work. This is the second installment of the Nursery Crimes' series, featuring Jack Spratt (who could eat no fat) and Mary Mary. This time, they are attempting to locate Goldilocks who was last seen at a bears' cottage in Anderson Forest, figure out why a greenhouse full of giant cucumbers exploded, penetrate a porridge-dealer's network, and reinstate themselves into the good graces of the aut
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Nov 19, 2009
Nikki
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I think I liked The Fourth Bear more than I liked The Big Over Easy. I am very used to Jasper Fforde's style, tricks and puns, but this book had some sections I found truly brilliant -- and read at length to my flatmate. This one seems even more meta-fictional than the others: more so than The Big Over Easy, anyway. It's been a while since I read the Thursday Next books.
One thing I felt really sad about was Ashley losing his memory of his date with Mary. I actually really wanted them More...
One thing I felt really sad about was Ashley losing his memory of his date with Mary. I actually really wanted them More...
Jan 09, 2012
Alytha
rated it: 
It cranks the insanity of the Thursday Next universe to 11, and it goes far more meta, in the TN tradition, than the first book. (Dorian Grey appears as a used-car dealer, and Caliban as a somewhat obnoxious pet kind of thing. And there's a guy called McGuffin ;) )
The plot involves addictive substances of the ursine persuasion, a dead young lady called Goldilocks, prize-cucumber growers, the mysterious Men in Green, and a dangerous gingery lunatic on the loose. Jack, Mary and Ashley th More...
The plot involves addictive substances of the ursine persuasion, a dead young lady called Goldilocks, prize-cucumber growers, the mysterious Men in Green, and a dangerous gingery lunatic on the loose. Jack, Mary and Ashley th More...
Oct 22, 2011
Thea
rated it:
I'm not a fan of crime procedurals. Being the sort of person who Googles the plot halfway through a film, the thrill of a mystery is usually lost on me. However, one of my favorite short stories is Neil Gaiman's The Case of the Four and Twenty Blackbirds, a whodunit involving characters from traditional nursery rhymes, which is absolutely mind-blowing and can be read here on the author's website.
Jasper Fforde's The Fourth Bear is structured along a similar concept, except that it inclu More...
Jasper Fforde's The Fourth Bear is structured along a similar concept, except that it inclu More...
Jun 18, 2011
Hank
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This isn't Fford's latest, it was published in 2006, but it's my favorite of the ones I've read. This is another fairy tale squeezed almost out of recognition by subplots and outrageous liberties taken with the plot and characters. In it, Detectives Jack Spratt and Mary Mary investigate suspicious occurrences that include the mysterious deaths of heavy-weight cucumber growers, Goldilocks' disappearance and subsequent death and Somme World (experience WWI!)
My favorite scene occurred when More...
My favorite scene occurred when More...
Jan 12, 2010
Becky
rated it:
The Fourth Bear, the second Nursery Crime mystery, opens in Obscurity and begins with a giant cucumber and a tremendous explosion. The action picks up from there. Once again, DCI Jack Spratt and DS Mary Mary are on the case. And, once again, the case is much larger than it initially appears. The Gingerbread Man has escaped from the nuthouse, Goldilocks is brutally murdered, and somehow all these things are deliciously linked to one another.
As in the previous book, the joy in this More...
As in the previous book, the joy in this More...
Apr 20, 2011
Mandolin
rated it:
This second installment of the Nursery Crime series recounts the further investigations and adventures of DCI Jack Spratt, DS Mary Mary (Quite Contrary!), Ashley the alien Rambosian who speaks binary and the other members of the Berkshire Nursery Crime Division. The book opens with Spratt's abilities once more called into question due to his recent failures in the attempt to arrest the Great Red-Legg'd Scissorman and the big bad wolf in the notorious Red Riding Hood affair (during which grandma
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Jan 23, 2011
Lindsey
rated it:
I'm a big fan of Jasper Fforde, but I prefer his other series. Still, to tide me over until the next Next book, I decided to give this one a try. What I found was a delightful romp through conspiracy theories definitively not involving the book's prosaic aliens, twists, turns and well-incorporated metahumor resulting in a satisfying read.
Jack Spratt (of "eats no fat" fame, occasional giant killer, necessarily insane) is head of the Nursery Crimes Division of the police fo More...
Jack Spratt (of "eats no fat" fame, occasional giant killer, necessarily insane) is head of the Nursery Crimes Division of the police fo More...
Jul 26, 2010
Violet
rated it:
Okay not as good as the first, but sequels rarely are. For one thing, the mystery wasn't as complex (maybe a bit more far-fetched), and the ending wasn't that surprising. It was a bit harder to follow in my opinion, and overal wasn't as well crafted as the last one, in the way that so many seemingly unconnected pieces come together in the very end and suddenly seem so obvious. It was alright.
You would think that after the Humpty case, Jack Spratt and the NCD would have gained more re More...
You would think that after the Humpty case, Jack Spratt and the NCD would have gained more re More...
Feb 04, 2012
Karen
rated it:
Second in the Nursery Crimes series! Lots of fun, as Detective Jack Spratt and Sergeant Mary Mary (demoted from the Nursery Crimes unit to Missing Persons) investigate the disappearance of tabloid writer Henrietta "Goldy" Hatchett, who was last seen alive by (of course) the Three Bears. Questions abound -- how could the porridge be such different temperatures if it was all poured at the same time? Was there a Fourth Bear? Was Goldy's death a freak accident, or was it disguised to
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Mar 21, 2010
Marfita
rated it:
Fforde again injects silliness for its own sake into what this time is a typical Ken Follett tale. DCI Jack Spratt is taken off a case before it even starts, which queers his bid to enter the Guild of Detectives. He is on forced medical leave until it is determined he's sane enough to continue ... in a job where a little insanity helps. The case is the escape of the same serial killer he captured previously - who will certainly want his revenge, right? But there's much more than that - Natio
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Oct 23, 2011
Michelle
rated it:
This is the second book in the Nursery Crimes series, with Detective Jack Spratt and his cohort Sgt Mary Mary on the case. The Gingerbreadman, a cunning mass murderer who has leanings towards Hannibal Lecter, has escaped and the Nursery Crimes division expects to be on the case. However, Jack is suspended and is put on leave until he completes a psychiatric evaluation. As he helps Mary and Ashley, an alien who works on the ceiling of their office investigate a blonde missing reporter last seen a
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Mar 21, 2011
Alice
rated it:
These are far from my favorite of the Jasper Fforde books. That doesn't mean they're not entertaining, though. They are a good way to pass the time while I wait for the next Thursday Next book.
While the satire in the Nursery Crime books is often biting and timely, the plots, themselves, don't hold up very well. I don't read Jasper Fforde for the plots, though. I read Jasper Fforde's books because he's amazingly creative, and often uproariously funny.
This book is no ex More...
While the satire in the Nursery Crime books is often biting and timely, the plots, themselves, don't hold up very well. I don't read Jasper Fforde for the plots, though. I read Jasper Fforde's books because he's amazingly creative, and often uproariously funny.
This book is no ex More...
Oct 22, 2011
Micah
rated it:
Jasper Fforde is one of my favorite writers. One of the reasons for this is that he's one of the few authors that manages to be super meta and self aware without coming off as bloated with self importance and smugness.
The Nursery Crimes follow along a similar lines to his Thursday Next replacing the classic British literature references with folk tales and nursery stories. What I liked about this book is that it dealt with some popular cliches in good and intriguing ways. One of the highli More...
The Nursery Crimes follow along a similar lines to his Thursday Next replacing the classic British literature references with folk tales and nursery stories. What I liked about this book is that it dealt with some popular cliches in good and intriguing ways. One of the highli More...
Sep 17, 2011
natercopia
rated it:
"Are you a cake or a biscuit?"
Yes! The wait is over when the second book of Nursery Crime featured the psychopath Gingerbreadman as one of the antagonist. I don't know why but I was waiting for the Gingerbreadman to make more appearance in this book. So dangerous yet he's just food to us all. The Fourth Bear has so much things going on yet it delivers. Good, funny dialogues and come backs between the characters. And do you know what is the awesome part? It works as a stand al More...
Yes! The wait is over when the second book of Nursery Crime featured the psychopath Gingerbreadman as one of the antagonist. I don't know why but I was waiting for the Gingerbreadman to make more appearance in this book. So dangerous yet he's just food to us all. The Fourth Bear has so much things going on yet it delivers. Good, funny dialogues and come backs between the characters. And do you know what is the awesome part? It works as a stand al More...
Jun 09, 2011
Sarah
rated it:
The Fourth Bear doesn't just give you a view into what those nursery characters are up to when we're not looking - it's a fantastic story as well. And Jasper Fforde has done these characters justice, truly. From Jack Spratt (a detective in the Nursery Crimes Division, handling cases involving Persons of Dubious Reality) to his partner, Mary Mary (I don't have to tell you she's not easy to get on with), they are all drawn in a way that makes one say, "Yes! Yes, this is precisely how I though
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Sep 04, 2011
Ashley
rated it:
This is Fford's second installment of his Nursery Crimes novels, and I liked this one much better than the previous. In this one he pretty much inundated his world with literary figures, most of whom I know(Caliban from The Tempest) and others which I know where they cone from, but have yet to read the book(Dorian Gray). In the first book I felt more in the real world than this time around, mainly because the main character , Jack Sprat finally comes clean about being a nursery character himsel
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Jun 30, 2010
Anthony
rated it:
I'm a relatively recent convert to the Jasper Fforde fan club, primarily through these 'Nursery Crimes' books, though more recently through 'Shades of Grey'.
The Fourth Bear has all the trademark wittiness and wordplay upon which Fforde has built a solid reputation and following. While reading it, you notice one literary pun or joke after another, and are nevertheless left with the disconcerting sense that even so, you're still missing far more than you're picking up.
More More...
The Fourth Bear has all the trademark wittiness and wordplay upon which Fforde has built a solid reputation and following. While reading it, you notice one literary pun or joke after another, and are nevertheless left with the disconcerting sense that even so, you're still missing far more than you're picking up.
More More...
Dec 08, 2011
Jennifer
rated it:
Odd. This novel was truly unlike any I've ever read. This was my first encounter with Jasper Fforde under the recommendation of a friend. This is the second book in a series, but I found it easy to delve in without reading the predecessor.
The NDC or the Nursery Crime Division deals with all crimes relating to nursery rhyme figures, aka anything weird. The reader follows Detective Chief Inspector Jack Spratt (the one who 'eats no fat') through his investigation of the death of Goldiloc More...
The NDC or the Nursery Crime Division deals with all crimes relating to nursery rhyme figures, aka anything weird. The reader follows Detective Chief Inspector Jack Spratt (the one who 'eats no fat') through his investigation of the death of Goldiloc More...
Jan 02, 2009
Judy
rated it:
Not your typical read, but I loved it. Chief Inspector Jack Spratt, head of the Nursery Crimes Division of the Reading Police and a PDR (Person of Dubious Reality) and his assistant Mary Mary have to track down and apprehend the Gingerbread Man (a 7 foot cookie with a bad attitude who has escaped from a mental institution after killing over a hundred people by ripping their arms off) and find the missing Henrietta "Goldilocks" Hatchett (who is having an affair with a MP and has arrang
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Jun 18, 2011
Alan
rated it:
I am always very hesitant to recommend humor writers. Even more so than music the enjoyment of humor depends on an individual's tastes. This is my third Jasper Fforde book, and so far I have enjoyed all them. Perhaps, it is because the humor fits into the story's context.
And, context is not always for the week.
This is the second and last Nursery Crimes Division book. Fforde is staying in his metafictional comfort zone. Jack Spratt's new case is his biggest yet. Not onl More...
And, context is not always for the week.
This is the second and last Nursery Crimes Division book. Fforde is staying in his metafictional comfort zone. Jack Spratt's new case is his biggest yet. Not onl More...
