The Fourth Bear

A Nursery Crime

By: Jasper Fforde

Narrated by: Simon Vance

The Gingerbreadman, psychopath, sadist, genius, and killer, is on the loose. But it isn't Jack Spratt's case. He and Mary Mary have been demoted to Missing Persons following Jack's poor judgment involving the poisoning of Mr. Bun the baker. Missing Persons looks like a boring assignment until a chance encounter leads them into the hunt for missing journalist Henrietta "Goldy" Hatchett, star reporter for The Daily Mole. Last to see her alive? The Three Bears, comfortably living out a life of rural solitude in Andersen's wood.

But all is not what it seems. How could the bears' porridge be at such disparate temperatures when they were poured at the same time? Why did Mr. and Mrs. Bear sleep in separate beds? Was there a fourth bear? And if there was, who was he, and why did he try to disguise Goldy's death as a freak accident?

Jack answers all these questions and a few others besides, rescues Mary Mary from almost certain death, and finally meets the Fourth Bear and the Gingerbreadman face-to-face.

©2006 Jasper Fforde (P)2006 Penguin Audio, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., and Books on Tape

Critic reviews

"Jasper Fforde is able to write diabolically.... Outrageous satirical agility is his stock in trade." (The New York Times)

"Like the creators of...The Simpsons and South Park, Mr. Fforde uses fantasy to dissect real life.... He is our best thinking person's genre writer." (The Washington Times)

"Mr. Fforde manages to bombard the reader with more bizarre detail than most writers would dare to fit in their entire oeuvre, yet he does so with...light prose and easy, confident wit." (The Wall Street Journal)

very clever

This book was witty and a lot of fun. I enjoy the Jack Spratt series even more than the Thursday one. The narrator was engaging--an all-around great audiobook experience.

Are you a PDR?

Inspector Jack Spratt and the NCD gang are back. Another great nursery crime. Truly enjoyable even for non PDRs (persons of dubious reality).

More please!

I loved this book!!! I stumbled into this series and I thank the audiobook gods. Jack and Mary Mary are the best dynamic duo!

I love the inventiveness of the author. The Gingerbread Man is a serial killer. Punch and Judy are marriage counselors. Insane!! All of these stories intersect until the fourth bear is revealed. Genius!!

The narrator is pretty special as well. It takes a special talent to voice a serial killing cake/cookie, an alien (well, several, actually), a variety of bears, and an insane amount of nursery rhyme characters, not to mention Poseidon. (Did I forget to mention him?)

More please!!

And Now for Something Completely Different

Not different from the author's other works, but with a certain Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Black Adder, Monty Pythonesque flair that had me laughing so hard I nearly ran off the road. Other than being careful when driving, the only other warning I would give to American readers is that you need to brush up on your Edward Lear poetry in order to fully appreciate characters such as the Dong with a Luminous Nose.

Delightfully Goofy

Though some of the British humor escaped my American sensibilities, I still found this audiobook quite enjoyable, laughing out loud several times.

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This delightful ASCII-to-Audio book is a whimsical, often laugh-out-loud-silly, sequel to "The Big Over Easy: A Nursery Crime" (which in itself should be regarded as a diversionary sub-sequel to "The Well of Lost Plots") and although it takes a chapter to get used to yet another new narrator, he's also very good.

The story line is no less complex, but it does tend to be a touch more farcical than the previous entries by Mr. Fforde. Worry not, this author knows how to tie up loose ends as no other author of speculative fiction in the English language. Well, he does tend to have a lot of ends in his hands compared to most, but it's a fine juggling act. Don't worry, just get it. It'll be over way too soon.

When Mr. Fforde steps out of the story to address the listener/reader directly for the first time in his books that at least I can remember, he does it quickly and well. And he does leave a broad hint that a certain favorite Spec Ops character is heading our way again.

The Toad, 2006

Brilliant on a new level

The whole premise, with nursery rhyme characters may seem shallow - but in fact the story is clever in its depth of wit and the author is brilliant in a very unique way.
Fans of the Thursday Next series will surely enjoy it -
if you are new to Jasper Fforde, expect a satirical kind of humor and action sequences that only occur after the plot has fully developed. It is more cerebral than emotional - except that I have come to love it!

Another great book by Fforde

If you are looking for a great book to listen to with the kids, look no further. This book is smart enough for older listeners but light hearted enough to entertain the kids. I find Fforde's MontyPythonesque humor to be really entertaining and recommend all of his books to those looking for a light fun read.

Brilliantly Bonkers

I liked everything about this book. I liked it even better than 'The Big Over Easy'. The performance was engaging and the voices of the characters distinct. The writing was top notch (as we've come to expect from Jasper Fforde). Love, love, love.

Not Thursday Next but

Neither of the Nursery Crime novels are as interesting as the Thursday Next series, in my opinion, and this one was not even as good as The Big Over Easy. That said, there are still some clever moments and some that will make you smile. The narration is very good and the story moves along at a snappy pace. Not a bad listen, but I will be very happy to see Thursday come back.