Lost In A Good Book by Jasper Fforde
Second in the Thursday Next series, Lost In A Good Book is approximately 3 months on after the last novel by Fforde, The Eyre Affair.
Literary Detective Thursday Next is enjoying married life to Landen Park-Laine when she discovers an original manuscript of lost Shakespeare play Cardenio, that is suspiciously donated to a politician named Yorrick Kaine who instantly gets 'the shakespeare vote' amongst the British public. Meanwhile the shady Goliath Corporation are trying desperately to get Jack Schitt out of Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven, and decide to erradicate Park-Laine in order to get Next to do the business for them. So follows an exciting trip through classic novels, with famous characters, fights in BookWorld for trashy novels, wild car journies through Swindon and the threat of the world turning into a mysterious pink goo....
You have to read it to believe it, Lost In A Good Book follows Fforde's trademark style of in-jokes, cheesey links and neccessity for prior literature knowledge. You have to read everything twice because if a name sounds like a joke, it probably is. Fforde's detective books tend to follow a pretty standard detective plot but luckily are definately no standard detective books. The Thursday Next novels, and the Nursey Detective novels are funny, relevant and incredibly clever, and definately worth a read.
