The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde

Fiction: Humor/Detective. Unabridged Audiobook from Penguin Audio. Published in 2006. 10 hours, 55 minutes. Read by Simon Vance. Purchased at Audible.com.

I've probably mentioned before that Jasper Fforde was recommended to me at a Terry Pratchett book signing. It's not without good reason that the gentleman said "If you like Terry Pratchett, you might enjoy Jasper Fforde." While Pratchett's work is Fantasy/Humor, Fforde's is Fantasy/Detective/Humor, but they both share many things in common, one being that they make me laugh out loud every time I read them. Fforde is very creative. It's not classic literature, but you'll certainly understand many of the jokes better if you have read some classics. Really quite a fun read. But, for the record, Pratchett is still my favorite of the two.

Publisher's summary:
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.

In the News:
Fforde's fantastical 'Fourth Bear' stirs a porridge of a 'nursery crime'

Online book shopping:
Powell's: The Fourth Bear
amazon.co.uk: The Fourth Bear
amazon.com: The Fourth Bear
Audible.com: The Fourth Bear