The Fourth Bear (Nursery Crime, #2)

by Jasper Fforde

‘I’d be okay – I’ve got my core memories backed up at home in a jar.’

She also holds the record for the most bizarre interpretations of a Rorschach ink-blot test, variously describing the meaningless and largely discredited test patterns as “A dog doing push-ups with an ant in attendance” and “Coco the clown in conversation with the Pope”.’

‘Prejudice is a product of ignorance that hides behind barriers of tradition,

If you ever think you might want a career in politics, Inspector, think again. It’s merely a continuous and mostly vain attempt to keep several groups of people with opposing needs and agendas happy, and knowing in your heart of hearts that you cannot, and being lambasted for your hard work into the bargain.’

‘From my experience of government departments,’ said Jack, ‘they couldn’t order the right size of staples, let alone succeed in anything as bizarrely complex as a murder and then a subsequent cover-up.’ ‘Yes,’ agreed Parks sulkily, ‘it’s where that particular mainstay of conspiracy theory falls down. I hate to admit it, but governmental deviousness is usually better explained by incompetence, vanity and the need to protect one’s job at all costs.

‘Because it is the way you are built – your bodies use networks to pass information; your veins and arteries are networks to nourish your bodies. Your mind is a complicated network of nerve impulses. It’s little wonder that networks dominate the planet – you have modelled your existence after the construction of your own minds.’