The Fourth Bear, Jasper Fforde
The Fourth Bear, Jasper Fforde
36 Rating(s)
List: $22.50 | Sale: $15.75
Club: $11.25

The Fourth Bear
A Nursery Crime

Author: Jasper Fforde

Narrator: Simon Vance

Unabridged: 10 hr 55 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Published: 08/03/2006


Synopsis

The inimitable Jasper Fforde gives readers another delightful mash-up of detective fiction and nursery rhyme, returning to those mean streets where no character is innocent. The Gingerbreadman—sadist, psychopath, cookie—is on the loose in Reading, but that’s not who Detective Jack Spratt and Sergeant Mary Mary are after. Instead, they’ve been demoted to searching for missing journalist “Goldy” Hatchett. The last witnesses to see her alive were the reclusive Three Bears, and right away Spratt senses something furry—uh, funny—about their story, starting with the porridge. The Fourth Bear is a delirious new romp from our most irrepressible fabulist.

About The Author

Jasper Fforde traded a varied career in the film industry for staring vacantly out the window and arranging words on a page. He lives and writes in Wales. The Eyre Affair was his first novel in the bestselling Thursday Next series. He is also the author of Shades of Grey and the Nursery Crime series.Simon Vance is a stage, TV, and film actor who has narrated more than 200 audiobooks for which he has won multiple AudioFile Earphone Awards and Audie nominations. He has also been selected as an AudioFile Golden Voice. Formerly a BBC Radio newsreader in London, he now resides in Northern California.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Megan on May 19, 2014

Nursery Crime Division head, Jack Spratt, has a Gingerbreadman on the loose. And a missing reporter named Goldilocks. And Punch and Judy just moved in next door, raising the noise level in the neighbourhood considerably. Note: The rest of this review has been withdrawn due to the changes in Goodread......more

Goodreads review by Joel on September 07, 2008

So far, this is my favorite of the Jasper Fforde books. The wordplay and puns just keep on coming, but I also enjoyed the meta-fictional elements going on here. Storybook characters who know they're storybook characters (or, in Fforde's parlance, Persons of Dubious Reality), plot devices named and n......more

Goodreads review by Jo on September 15, 2012

I'd like to start this review by saying that Jasper Fforde is a genius. I loved his Thursday Next series, thoroughly enjoyed the first Nursery Crimes book (The Big Over Easy), and can honestly say this is hands-down my favourite of his books. The Fourth Bear is, ostensibly, Fforde's take on Goldilock......more

Goodreads review by Melissa on April 30, 2019

This book took quite a while to read to the kids. I found it to be more interesting than the first book, but also slightly confusing because I kept forgetting who Bisky-Batt was. 4 stars for being an entertaining read. If you haven't read the first book 'The Big Over Easy', let me give you a re-cap.......more

Goodreads review by Ashley on October 03, 2014

I’m not sure whether it’s the book, or whether I was just in the perfect mood for it, but regardless, the result is the same. The Fourth Bear is my favorite of the seven Jasper Fforde novels I’ve read. The first five Thursday Next Novels are fun but can be a bit overwhelming, and sometimes downright......more


Quotes

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 personÆs 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)