Has anyone read the Thursday Next books by Jasper Fforde? They are a series of tongue-in-cheek detective stories centered around a Literary Detective named Thursday Next (our heroine was born on a Thursday) who works in an fantasy England in which literary crime is rampant and taken very seriously, home cloning makes pets out of Dodo birds, the Crimean War has gone on for a hundred years, and it is possible to enter into the worlds within books of fiction. I just started rereading the first three books in the series, as I wait for the sixth to be published. I really recommend the series. Very funny, fast paced, interesting, quirky characters.

Book one is called "The Eyre Affair" and revolves around attempts, by arch-villain Acheron Hades, to destroy Jane Eyre from the inside as it were as he enters the book to change its plot. Thursday is the SpecOps detective who goes into the book to save it. Thursday's ability to jump into books is coveted by the Goliath Corporation (who owns anything worth owning in the world), and their agent Jack Schitt. Rampant wordplay, and genre-play are displayed as a hire-wire act, with multiple plots and long-running literary jokes cast throughout the series.

Book two is called Lost In A Good Book, and book three is named The Well of Lost Plots. These find Thursday beginning to work for the Bookworld's policing agency Jurisfiction, much as she works for Literary Spec-ops in our world. Jurisfiction maintains the boundaries between genres, prevents "book-jumping" (characters jumping out their own books into others) and monitors the trade in plots and characters.

But I wonder about one thing. The author is England-born, lives and works in Wales, and has a lot of fun with the idea that that the Wales in his books is a Socialist Republic with a closed, militant border with England, and rampant cheese smuggling, a bit gloomy and iron-curtainish. Lenin is referred to as Y Brawd Ulyanov, and the republic was founded by John Frost out of the Chartist Rebellions. Everybody drives Griffin autos. I sometimes find this funny and sometimes find it annoying. I guess Fforde is not a a fan of socialism?

Given the spelling of his name i wouldn't expect him to be English, but the Author writes, "Fforde failed his Welsh Nationality Test by erroneously identifying Gavin Henson as a TV chef, but continues to live and work in his adopted nation despite this setback. He has a Welsh wife, two welsh daughters and a welsh dog, who is mad (but not because he's Welsh). He has a passion for movies, photographs, and aviation."

His website is large, fun, full of in-jokes and expansions on the conceits that drive the books. Find it at www.jasperfforde.com If you like humor in your detective stories, definitely try Jasper Fforde.