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?
Return to the world of the Nursery Crime Division in this novel from Jasper Fforde, the New York Times bestselling author of the Thursday Next series and The Constant Rabbit
The inimitable Jasper Fforde gives readers another delightful mash-up of detective fiction and nursery rhyme, returning to those mean streets where no character is innocent. The Gingerbreadman-sadist, psychopath, cookie-is on the loose in Reading, but that's not who Detective Jack Spratt and Sergeant Mary Mary are after. Instead, they've been demoted to searching for missing journalist "Goldy" Hatchett. The last witnesses to see her alive were the reclusive Three Bears, and right away Spratt senses something furry-uh, funny-about their story, starting with the porridge. The Fourth Bear is a delirious new romp from our most irrepressible fabulist.
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)
