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Hardcover The Big Over Easy: A Nursery Crime Book

ISBN: 0670034231

ISBN13: 9780670034239

The Big Over Easy

(Book #1 in the Nursery Crime Series)

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Recommended

Format: Hardcover

Condition: Very Good*

*Best Available: (missing dust jacket)

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Book Overview

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 . . .

Customer Reviews

customer rating | review

Rated 5 stars
Be there when this case is cracked

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. You know the rest of the story, but let's be honest here -- king's horses and men don't have the technical know-how to reconstruct the sticky fragments of a giant egg. The Reading medical examiner, on the other hand, is up to the task ... and her autopsy shows more than a cracked eggshell: someone shot minor baronet Humpty Stuvesant van Dumpty in the back as he...

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Rated 5 stars
Humpty wasn't pushed after all!

Jack Spratt is the man in charge of the NCD (Nursery Crimes Division) -- the man who is, at the beginning of the book, trying the three pigs for the murder of the "big, bad" wolf. (Seems wolfie was a vegetarian ...) The trial goes poorly (who would convict three adorable little pigs?) and the future of the NCD is in jeopardy. Then Humpty Dumpty takes his famous nosedive. And when the forensic work is done, the evidence shows...

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Rated 5 stars
Keywords: Silly, fun, light, fresh, podiatry

____________________________________________ Who killed Humpty Dumpty? In this amazingly silly police-procedural, we follow Detective-Inspector Jack Spratt (aka Jack Beanstalk, Giant Killer) and Detective Sergeant Mary Mary of the Reading Police, Nursery Crimes Division through the twists and turns of this, um, fractured fairy-tale. Just about every half-remembered nursery-rhyme character makes an appearance: The Three Little...

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Rated 5 stars
Goes down easy

I always had a thing against traditional nursery rhymes. I thought they were just a little too violent for their intended audience. Thankfully, Jasper Fforde had the mind to expose the seedy underbelly of Humpty Dumpty's world and the truth is finally out. Oh, to get a peek inside of the creative and imaginative mind of Mr. Fforde. "The Big Over Easy" is a skillful work of art and it was a pleasure to read although I...

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Rated 5 stars
Nursery Crime Division -- Open for business

To be honest, I was a little let down when I heard that the Nursery Crime series (re-tooled Caversham Heights) would be Fforde's follow-up to the Thursday Next books. I loved each and every one of Thursday's adventures, and never tire of re-reading them. I just wasn't sure if this story line would be able to hold my interest. I was able to get an advance copy, however, and I am glad to say that all my fears were ungrounded!...

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