1 January 2019
I first learned of Jasper Fforde's writing with Shades of Grey, a dystopia/social commentary tale with people divided into classes based on color - an interesting book. I heard about a few other books also by this writer, like The Eyre Affair part of the Thursday Next series in my queue, and this book, the first of the Nursery Crime series.
In this story, Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, and Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. So Jack Spratt and Mary Mary of the Nursery Crime Division of the Reading Police Department are investigating the cause of death to see if they have a murder case on their hands. Fforde's storytelling blends crimes, rhymes and fairy tales in a unique way, that makes for a different kind of crime story. I don't like stories when characters get picked on a lot, and there was a lot of that in the earlier half of the book, which made this a harder read for me. Also at times it felt like the writing was trying to be more clever than its own good, which if you're not up to date on nursery rhymes may lead you to miss some of the humor. But so far I think all his stories are really unique and worth a read if you're looking for something imaginative. 3/5