Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde

Something Rotten is the fourth and final installment in the first series of Thursday Next novels. 

Readers of Fforde will be know this series takes place in an alternative reality that looks an awful lot like our own, except:  the year is 1985, there are vampires, werewolves and all manner of other supernatural beasties, and some people have extraordinary powers - such as the ability to travel through time or to enter into the fictional realities inside books.  In the previous book, The Well of Lost Plots, Thursday went into hiding inside a trashy novel called Caversham Heights.  

It is now over two years later:  Thursday has given birth to and started rearing a son, fathered by her now absent husband  Landen.  She decides it is time to come back to the real world and recover what she can of her old life.  If only it were that simple.  Old enemies resurface in new ways, and Armageddon may be just around the corner.  Can a croquet match really save the world from destruction?

Something Rotten is a much better book than its two predecessors.  The plot is well-constructed, the narrative is pacy throughout, with quite a few twists and turns to keep the reader interested and attentive.  Fforde adds extra life to the proceedings with wit and humor, and there is more than a few laughs to be had. 

I you haven't read anything by Jasper Fforde, I recommend The Eyre Affair, the first book in the series.  It can be read as a stand-alone novel; but once you have the taste, you may well want to consume more.  If The Eyre Affair is the tantalising entrée, then Something Rotten is the satisfying dessert.