The Big Over Easy

The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde, 383 pages

When Detective Inspector Jack Spratt is called to the scene of a crime, he knows it's not going to be a run-of-the-mill robbery or murder. As head of the Nursery Crimes Division at the Reading Police Department, DI Spratt cracks down on straw-into-gold scams and searches for Bo Peep's lost (stolen?) sheep. But when Spratt and his new Sergeant Mary Mary are called to investigate the death of Humpty Dumpty, they're in for a much bigger case than they'd normally see at the NCD, full of money laundering, scorned lovers, and a run-in with the mafia don Giorgio Porgia. Like Fforde's fantastic Thursday Next series, The Big Over Easy is a fun book full of literary and pop cultural references, intertwined plots, and great characters. I've read this book many times before, and each time, I catch more references (among other things, I noticed an Elvis Costello shout-out this time around) and have more fun reading it. It's only a matter of time before I pick up the other Nursery Crime novel, The Fourth Bear, once again.