The Fourth Bear - Jasper Fforde

Jack Spratt, head of Reading's Nursery Crimes Division, is back from his triumph in the Humpty Dumpty case (The Big Over Easy) - only the NCD has once again been relegated to second place, and Jack's facing suspension over the Red Riding Hood fiasco. When the mass murdered the Gingerbread Man escapes, Jack's on the case, albeit unofficially - after all, he caught the Ginja killer in the first place. But tied up with tracking down the psychopathic biscuit (or cake) is an investigation into exploding cucumber growers, a missing journalist known as Goldilocks who was last seen by the Three Bears, a mystery involving the Quangle-Wangle's QuangTech corporation and the SommeWorld theme park, a car that recovers from all accidents (though its picture, in the book, shows an increasingly dilapidated but otherwise identical model), and a possible romance between Spratt's 2IC Mary Mary and resident alien Ashley. Spratt can't even relax when he gets home - not only have Punch and Judy moved in next door, but Jack's beloved second wife seems perilously close to discovering Jack's secret.
A little less convoluted than Fforde's Thursday Next series, if only for the lack of time travelling, The Fourth Bear is a fun and intricately-plotted mystery. There are literary and nursery rhyme allusions, a loving familiarity with and subversion of the police procedural, meticulous attention to detail, and playful puns:

"Killed two male nurses and a doctor with his bare hands. The other three orderlies who accompanied him are critical in hospital."
"Critical?"
"Yes; don't like the food, beds uncomfortable, waiting lists too long - usual crap. other than that, they're fine."

Each chapter open with an extract from the 2004 edition of the Bumper Book of Berkshire Records, most of which not only relate to the chapter ahead but are funny in their own right. A recurrent theme through the book is the addictive nature of porridge and honey, which are strictly rationed for ursine users, giving us the following opening for chapter ten:

'Most illegal substance for bears. The euphoria-inducing porridge ("flake") is a "Class III" foodstuff and, while admitting a small problem, the International League for Ursidae consider that rationed use does no real harm. Buns ("dough-balls") and honey ("buzz" or "sweet") remain on the "Class II" list and are more rigorously controlled, except for medicinal purposes. Honey addicts ("sweeters" or "buzz boys) are usually weaned off the habit with Sweetex with some success. The most dangerous substance on the "Class I" list is marmalade ("chunk", "shred" or "peel"). The serious psychotropic effects of marmalade can lead to all kinds of dangerous and aberrant behaviour, and is best avoided as far as bears are concerned.'

There are discussions about the plight of incidental characters ("your entire life summed up in a few perfunctory descriptive terms, the sole meaning of your existence just a few lines in the incalculable vastness of fiction"), a running gag about using plot devices (In response to his superior asking if he's trying to pull a plot device number twenty-seven, Spratt replies "The one where my partner gets killed a drug bust gone wrong and I throw in my badge and go rogue?... I don't think so, sir... I'm suspended awaiting a psychological appraisal, and I don't know what plot device that is"), and a very nice description of why conspiracy theories that rely of governmental complicity and destined to fail.
You would need to be in the right frame of mind to fully appreciate Fforde's writing, and I think readers would get more enjoyment out of The Fourth Bear reading The Big Over Easy first, but with those provisos in mind, this a great and thoroughly enjoyable escapade. - Alex