Jasper Fforde

Jack Spratt and Mary Mary return in their second Nursery Crime adventure.--From publisher description.

A Nursery Crime

The Fourth Bear

In the second adventure by the bestselling author of the Thursday Next novels, "nursery crime" characters Jack Spratt and Mary Mary take on their most dangerous case so far, as a murderous cookie (The Gingerbread Man) menaces the streets of Reading.

Sian Wadey

The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde

I'd read one of Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next novels, but I didn't realise he'd written a collection of books based around nursery rhymes. I picked this up in a charity shop, not knowing it was the second in the series. But it didn't matter, the characters were introduced well and although I'd not read the previous one, there were several references to Red Riding Hood, which I'm guessing is the previous case. 
Fforde's universe is amazing, bears and aliens and PDR's (basically nursery rhyme characters) live alongside humans and it's all totally believable. I also love the added section of the Berkshire Bumper Book of Records at the beginning of every chapter. 
The story itself is brilliant if a little confusing. This book focuses on the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, but puts a spin on it that brings it up to modern day. Intertwined in this is the psychopathic Gingerbreadman, possibly one of the best ideas ever! As well as bears breaking their porridge quotas, a new theme park known as Sommeworld and a global company known as QuangTech.
The reason why I didn't give this five stars is because it took me a while to get into it. I probably read the last half of the book within two days, but the first half took me about a month. I'd say the reason for this is because there are a lot of different elements you have to keep in your brain, such as cucumbers exploding, the Gingerbreadman and Spratt and Mary busting a bear with a van full of oats. Only later does it all so cleverly slot together. 
Overall four strars for the great characters, clever plot and fantastic world that Fforde has created. I will most certainly be getting the others!

Jeni Enjaian

I enjoyed this book much more than the first. Having read the first book I was much better acquainted with the characters and the slightly different world that the Nursery Crimes books are set in. (Plausibly these books are in the same reality as Thursday Next.)
I loved all the word play and the constantly twisting plot. This overly-complicated plot (as all Jasper Fforde plots are) made much more "plausible" sense than the first book. (Plausible is in quotation marks simply because in the real world giant cookies aren't homicidal maniacs and bears are dumb animals not criminal masterminds. :D)
I loved the minor subplot of Jack coming to terms with his PDR (person of dubious reality) and how that affected his relationship with his wife.
This is an absolutely fantastic book. The only bad thing about it is that there's not a third book in the series...yet. (Of course, I may be completely ignorant but to my knowledge there is not a third book in the series yet.) I definitely recommend this book as I have every other Jasper Fforde book that I've read.

Jackie Cunningham

Jessica Brown

Greg Park

Jennifer Oramous

Pam Sartain

Jack Spratt, having been demoted for his poor judgment during the Mr. Bun poisoning, investigates the disappearance of star reporter "Goldy" Hatchett, whose case is related to the Gingerbreadman serial killer investigation.

Courtney Wise

Jessica Nottingham

Samantha Ridge

The Gingerbreadman: Psychopath, sadist, genius, convicted murderer and biscuit is loose in the streets of Reading. It isn't Jack Spratt's case. He and Mary Mary have been reassigned due to falling levels of nursery crime, and The NCD is once more in jeopardy. That is, until a chance encounter during the Armitage Shanks literary awards at the oddly familiar Deja-Vu Club lead Jack and Mary on the hunt for missing journalist Henrietta 'Goldilocks' Hatchett, star reporter for The Daily Toad. She had been about to break a story involving unexplained explosions in Herefordshire, Pasadena and the Nullabor Plain; The last witnesses to see her alive were 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 bear's porridge be at such disparate temperatures when they were poured at the same time? Was Goldy's death in the nearby 1st World War themepark of Sommeworld a freak accident? And is it merely chance that the Gingerbreadman pops up at awkward moments? But there's more. What does a missing scientist with a terrifying discovery in subatomic physics, a secret weapon of devastating power, a reclusive industrialist known only as the Quangle Wangle and Colonel Danvers of the National Security all have in common?

The Fourth Bear A Nursery Crime