So much about this book is utterly delightful. I’m not a fan of noir or detective stories in general, but The Big Over Easy sold me from beginning to end. I fell in love with Inspector Jack Spratt, family man and head of the Nursery Crime Division, in Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next books, but he really comes into his own within his own book. He is the kind of detective that is simply not around enough in detective stories: a guy who wants to solve the crime because it’s the right thing to do and it’s his job, rather than from some sense of inner darkness or grittiness. The rules of the nursery rhyme world are hilarious, intricate, and believable, and create a rich and funny background for the messiness of murder and mayhem. And there are egg puns.
