The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde

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Whenever I open a Jasper Fforde novel, I know that I am in for a treat. Page after page of his brilliant wit, intriguing word games and “logical nonsense” (ala Lewis Carroll) never fail to entertain me from bookend to bookend. Fforde's latest book, The Fourth Bear, is the second in his series of “Nursery Crimes,” where it is not uncommon to meet characters such as Jack Spratt, Goldilocks and Prometheus, the Greek titan. These tales, though they follow absurd plotlines, offer a lot of humor to the well-read reader and manage to convey edge-of-your-seat suspense. These factors make The Fourth Bear a gripping page-turner, once you get deep into the plot.

The story unfolds when Detective Chief Investigator Jack Spratt and his rag-tag Nursery Crime police division are trying to make up for the botched Little Red Riding Hood Case by trying to nab the Great Red Long Legged Scissor Man. They set up a stake-out and manage to nab him, but when police headquarters learns that Spratt used children as bait to lure him into the open, Spratt is immediately told to undergo psychological evaluation before returning to work. Plus, as Jack's bad luck would have it, his old nemesis, the Gingerbread Man, has broken out of the local sanatorium. So, he must remain off the case that would normally fall under his jurisdiction. In fact, Detective Investigator Mary Mary, who is left in charge of the division, is told to lay off of the Gingerbread Man case as well…a bitter blow to the Nursery Crime Division.

In the course of events, a local writer who has been bashing Jack's efforts cannot find his sister and suspects foul play. He agrees to stop the acerbic columns if Jack helps him. Jack is wary of the offer because it is not his type of case. The columnist then reveals to him that his sister's nickname was Goldilocks. Jack eagerly accepts the case.

Jack and Mary manage to trace the position of her last cell phone call to a couple of cell towers near Andersen's Wood, where they find her car. A quick search of the area reveals a house, inhabited by three anthropomorphic bears. Jack questions them about the happenings on the particular day that Goldilocks was last seen. They described to him the condition they found their house in after a brief walk in the woods, mentioning that she ran off from the house after being caught in one of their beds.

The plot twists and turns in various directions after this, tying absurdities such as giant cucumbers, illegal porridge, a World War I amusement park and Jack's to-the-death fight with the Gingerbread Man to the exciting solution to the mystery, which I have chosen to leave out for your entertainment. There are also other entertaining aspects about the book including Mary' s date with an alien, Jack buying a car from Dorian Gray and Jack's unwillingness to share the fact that he is a nursery rhyme character with his wife. Besides the inclusion of some very minor objectionable material, the book contains almost all genres of entertainment: action, adventure, mystery, romance and humor. It is definitely one of my favorite works of fiction, due to the sheer inventiveness and wit displayed in conceiving a plot that combines mystery, fantasy and humor in a truly unique way. And, I certainly cannot wait for his next nursery crime, based upon the fable of the tortoise and the hare, to come out next summer.