The Woman Who Died a Lot

August 27, 2012
Fforde (One of Our Thursdays is Missing) continues to show that his forte is absurdist humor in his seventh crime thriller starring Thursday Next, a member of the Literary Detectives division of Special Operations in an alternate-universe Britain. This time, itâs 2004, and Next is about to have a crowded week, even by her standards. As she puts it, it âbegan with a trip into Swindon in order to find myself a job and ended with a pillar of cleansing fire descending from the heavens, a rethink on the Wessex Library Service operating budget, and my son shooting Gavin Watkins dead.â Meanwhile, Britain is attempting to manage a stupidity surplus: âhe nationâs stupidityâusually discharged on a harmless drip feed of minor bunglingâhad now risen far beyond the capacity of the nation to dispose of it in a safe and sensible fashion.â Toast has become the newest fad food, spawning a popular chain of topless toast bars known as Tooters. Such details help flesh out this endearingly-bizarre fantasy world limited only by Ffordeâs impressive imagination. Agent: Will Francis, Janklow & Nesbit U.K.