Review by Bruce Wiley

Humpty Dumpty is dead. Initial reports are that a fall from a wall did in the nursery rhyme celebrity. But as the forensic pathologist begins to piece Humpty together again it becomes clear that it wasn't the fall at all but rather murder that killed the big egg. Enter Detective Inspector Jack Spratt from the Reading Police Department's Nursery Crime Division (NCD). Jack is assigned the case. At the same time he is assigned Detective Sergeant Mary Mary as his new partner.

Jasper Fforde is known to readers as author of the Thursday Next series of books: "The Eyre Affair," "Lost in a Good Book," "The Well of Lost Plots" and "Something Rotten" ("First Among Sequels" is due out this month). This is a series in which the protagonist is an English Literary Detective in a world where the line between reality and literature is so blurred that characters move from the real world into books and vice versa. "The Big Over Easy" is the first book in his Nursery Crime series (a second book "The Fourth Bear" has been published).

For Jack Spratt, life hasn't been great lately. His murder case against the Three Little Pigs (boiling the wolf alive was a heinous crime in Jack's eyes) ended in acquittals for all three. His NCD is seen as the lowest of departments to work in. And there are those who'd love to take this high-profile case from Jack. So, solving the murder of the immensely popular "Hump," as Humpty Dumpty was known to his friends, takes on a special significance.

"The Big Over Easy" is a fast, fun read that gives the reader a look at the imaginary and at times tawdry "behind the nursery rhyme" lives of a great number of characters that many of us remember from Mother Goose and other stories we heard as children. Fforde's wonderful sense of humor is on display on nearly every page, and quite often it is of the laugh-out-loud variety. While the plot may sound silly, it is cleverly written and will bring great pleasure to those who have both a love of literature and a healthy sense of humor (or humour if you're from Jasper Fforde's country of Wales).

So, for a fun summer read that will have you laughing aloud, remembering your earliest introduction to stories as a child and turning pages in anticipation of the next plot twist, grab a copy of "The Big Over Easy." And I'd advise that you read it while sitting in a chair as hysterical laughter while atop a wall has been shown to have adverse results.