The Fourth Bear - (Nursery Crime Novel) by Jasper Fforde (Paperback)

About the Book

In the second adventure by the bestselling author of the Thursday Next novels, "nursery crime" characters Jack Spratt and Mary Mary take on their most dangerous case so far, as a murderous cookie (The Gingerbread Man) menaces the streets of Reading.

Book Synopsis

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - Enter the seedy underbelly of nursery crime, where characters are never as they seem, in this "brilliantly, breathlessly odd" (USA Today) novel from the renowned author of The Big Over Easy and the Thursday Next series.

"Like the best novels of Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett, Fforde goes beyond his genre."--Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Jasper Fforde is able to write diabolically. . . . Outrageous satirical agility is his stock in trade."--The New York Times

Detective Jack Spratt and Sergeant Mary Mary long to collar the Gingerbreadman--psychopath, sadist, criminal genius, cookie--who's at large in Reading. Instead, they're demoted to searching for missing journalist Henrietta "Goldy" Hatchett. The last witnesses to see her alive were the reclusive three bears, and Jack thinks something's odd about their story. How could that porridge be too hot, too cold, and just right if it was poured at the same time?

The question is: was there a fourth bear?

Review Quotes

Jasper Fforde is able to write diabolically. . . . Outrageous satirical agility is his stock in trade. (The New York Times)

Like the creators of . . . The Simpsons and South Park, Mr. Fforde uses fantasy to dissect real life. . . . He is our best thinking personÆs genre writer. (The Washington Times)

Mr. Fforde manages to bombard the reader with more bizarre detail than most writers would dare to fit in their entire oeuvre, yet he does so with . . . light prose and easy, confident wit. (The Wall Street Journal)

About the Author

Jasper Fforde spent twenty years in the film business before debuting on the New York Times bestseller list with The Eyre Affair, the first book in the Thursday Next series. He is also the author of Early Riser and The Constant Rabbit; the Nursery Crime Adventures series; the Shades of Grey series; and the Last Dragonslayer series, adapted for television as a movie. He lives in Wales.