The Fourth Bear

The Fourth Bear

Infobox Book |
name = The Fourth Bear
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = UK Hardback Cover
author = Jasper Fforde
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = UK
language = English
series = Nursery Crimes
subject =
genre = Fantasy / Mystery
publisher = Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
release_date = 10 July 2006 (Hardback)
english_release_date =
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages = 400pp
isbn = ISBN 0-340-83570-2 (UK Hardback)
preceded_by = The Big Over Easy
followed_by = The Last Great Tortoise Race

"The Fourth Bear" is a mystery/fantasy novel by Jasper Fforde published in July 2006. It is Jasper Fforde's sixth novel, and the second in the Nursery Crimes series (also known as the Jack Spratt series). It continues the story of Detective Inspector Jack Spratt from "The Big Over Easy".

Plot

DCI Jack Spratt heads the Berkshire Nursery Crime Division, handling all inquiries involving nursery rhyme characters and other PDRs (persons of dubious reality). After doubts arise concerning his handling of the Great Red-Legg'd Scissorman's arrest and the Red Riding Hood affair, he is suspended pending a mental health review. His DS Mary Mary promises to consult him on all cases, to bypass the suspension. They begin an investigation of porridge-smuggling by anthropomorphic bears.

Jack's troubles increase when the argumentative Punches move in next door and his son adopts a sly and sticky-fingered pet. He is forced to reveal to his shocked wife that he is himself a PDR (Person of Dubious Reality). Furthermore, his psychiatrist is particularly sceptical about his claim that his new car repairs itself when no one is watching, and the car salesman who can prove his sanity cannot be found. His self-esteem is somewhat restored when the newspaperman who has been hounding him begs Jack's help in finding his missing sister "Goldilocks". It seems she was working on an explosive story involving cucumber growers.

Meanwhile the Gingerbreadman, the notorious murderous biscuit,(or possibly cake) escapes custody leaving a trail of bodies; Jack is frustrated when the case is given to an unimaginative officer outside NCD. While Jack and Mary are making enquiries about Goldilocks, they twice encounter the fugitive biscuit, but fail to capture him.

It emerges that Goldilocks was involved in the porridge-smuggling after her body is discovered in the grim theme park Sommeworld. Jack begins to suspect the Gingerbreadman is a hired assassin and attempts to question the Quangle-Wangle, a reclusive industrialist. The solution to the mystery involves secret industrial and government conspiracies and the mysterious Fourth bear...

Nursery rhyme/literary references

*Jack Sprat
*Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary
*The Gingerbread Man
*Goldilocks and the Three Bears
*Peter Piper
*Prometheus
*The Tempest
*Punch and Judy
*The Quangle-Wangle's Hat by Edward Lear
*Thursday Next
*Struwwelpeter
*Dorian Gray

External links

* [http://www.jasperfforde.com/ Fforde Grand Central]
* [http://www.nurserycrime.co.uk/special/js2.html The Fourth Bear Special Features]


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