Solving crimes committed in the realm of nursery rhymes

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THE BIG OVER EASY

By Jasper Fforde

Viking, $24.95, 380 pages

REVIEWED BY KELLY JANE TORRANCE

The sleuth: Detective Inspector Jack Spratt, a giant killer with an irresistible desire to climb huge beanstalks. The deceased: Humperdink Stuyvesant Van Dumpty III, aka Humpty Dumpty, a big egg with an even bigger pocketbook and a taste for young women. The crime: a fall off a wall that looks increasingly like foul (or fowl) play.

Sounds rather silly, doesn't it? But miraculously, Jasper Fforde has exploited childhood story elements and created a gripping, funny, intelligent mystery. Mr. Fforde, who lives in Wales, is no stranger to genre skipping. His series of Thursday Next mysteries, which began with 2001's "The Eyre Affair," combined literary fiction, mystery, science fiction and satire to great effect. Those four books take place in a strange alternative reality where people regard literature as important, and a criminal mastermind who plans to steal Jane Eyre from Charlotte Bronte's classic novel must be stopped at all costs.

The surprise success of those novels has led Mr. Fforde to begin a new series, the first book of which is "The Big Over Easy." The Nursery Crime books feature the aforementioned Jack Spratt, who is head of Reading Police Department's Nursery Crime Division. Incidents involving characters from children's stories -- who live side-by-side with normal humans -- fall under his jurisdiction.

It's a thankless job. The department doesn't offer much support and besides not being able to eat any fat, Spratt doesn't seem to be able to make many prosecutions either. The continued existence of his department is on the line after he failed to convict the three pigs of the premeditated murder of the Big Bad Wolf.

It doesn't help that Spratt is constantly eclipsed by another detective on the force, the legendary Friedland Chymes. Chymes got his fame -- and his ticket out of the NCD -- by taking credit for Jack's near-impossible capture of the psychopathic serial killer Gingerbreadman. Chymes looks down on Spratt, but he sees publicity potential in the Humpty case and will stop at nothing to have it for himself.