|
Carus Andiae
Small mammal
United Kingdom
667 Posts |
 Posted - 30 September 2006 : 8:48:38 PM
|
I've just finished this and hought it was hilarious.
It's set in an alternate Reading, where aliens have already landed (and turned out to be really boring and obsessed with filing) and where crime novels and dramas have become so popular that the importance of police cases is judged on how good a TV adaptation or magazine serialisation they make.
In the midst of this Detective Inspector Jack Spratt, and Detective Sergeant Mary Mary, of the Nursery Crime Division of the Oxford and Berkshire Constabulary is called in to investigate the death of one Humperdinck Jehoshaphat Aloysius Stuyvesant van Dumpty - aka Humpty Dumpty - an anthropomorphic egg, found shattered at the bottom of a wall. But the question is - did he fall or was he pushed?
It's a great story, working both as a comic story and a genuine crime thriller. There's a couple of nice subplots - such as Spratt's rivalry with top detective Friedland Chymes - and some clever subtle (and not so subtle) references to various nursery rhymes and fictional detectives (such as opera-loving, Oxford based Inspector Moose, and eccentric old lady Miss Maple).
Thoroughly recommended.
* * * *
"Licat volare si super tergum aquila volat" - Any man can fly when he rides on the back of an eagle
|
|
The Big Over Easy - Jasper Fford
