Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde

Title: Lost in a Good Book
Author: Jasper Fforde
ISBN: 9780340733578
Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton
First Published: 1988
No. of pages: 371
Format: Paperback
Rating: 7/10

Synopsis:
Thursday Next, literary detective and newlywed is back to embark on an adventure that begins, quite literally on her own doorstep. It seems that Landen, her husband of four weeks, actually drowned in an accident when he was two years old. Someone, somewhere, sometime, is responsible. The sinister Goliath Corporation wants its operative Jack Schitt out of the poem in which Thursday trapped him, and it will do almost anything to achieve this - but bribing the ChronoGuard? Is that possible? Having barely caught her breath after The Eyre Affair, Thursday must battle corrupt politicians, try to save the world from extinction, and help the Neanderthals to species self-determination. Mastadon migrations, journeys into Just William, a chance meeting with the Flopsy Bunnies, and violent life-and-death struggles in the summer sales are all part of a greater plan. But whose? and why?

Review:
Jasper Fforde is fast becoming another favourite of mine due to his witty writing,clever characterisation and perfect plotting. Although the story is rather complicated, I never once got lost (after all, I had Miss Haversham to guide me!), and found that I was taking the title very literally - I really was lost is a very good book!

What was possibly most pleasantly surprising was that there were one or two references made to books that I had recently read, and which I was not expecting to crop up (such as The Little Prince) and I was tickled pink that I "got" the joke (for my previous venture into Fforde-dom with The Eyre Affair, I prepared by first reading Jane Eyre, as I knew it was an integral part of the plot).

There's also the added bonus that, in reading Fforde's Thursday Next series, I'm being inspired to try some of the classics I missed before!