Hatching a Plot

I just finished my second Jasper Fforde novel, The Big Over Easy, a "Nursery Crime" murder mystery about the fall of Humpty Dumpty. I rolled my eyes through the first hundred pages, but it got to me. I've never read a mystery novel before. In fact, I nurse subtle disdain for them. But I greatly enjoyed the twisty good fun of it. And all with a message a…