US Reviews - Newy York Time Out TN2

When last we saw Detective Thursday next, the Special-Ops agent at the center of Fforde's compulsively readable debut, The Eyre Affair, she had defeated literature proffessor-turned master criminal Acheron Hades and married longtime flame Landen Parke-Laine. Most exciting, Thursday had rescued Jane Eyre from Acheron's clutches by following him through a Prose Portal and physically entering Charlotte Bronte's classic - a conceit that's catnip to book lovers with vivid escapist fantasies.

The book-jumping high jinks continue in Fforde's equally whimsical Lost in a Good Book. This time, Thursday becomes embroiled in a nasty plot involving the discovery of a missing Shakespearean manuscript and, naturally, the threat of world destruction. This leads to her apprenticeship in the Jurisfiction department, under the stern supervision of secret agent Miss Havisham (yes that one), Thursday also learns more about the 'bookworld', the alternate universe that lies within the pages of all written material, from Dickens to the washing instructions label in a pair of trousers. Experienced 'bookjumpers' can vanish into thin air simply by reading anything at hand.

Once again, Fforde's version of 1980s England is a delightfully skewed creation: The Crimean War has dragged on for more than a century, time travel is routine, and extinct species such as Neanderthals and dodo birds have been genetically reengineered. Although Lost's puns and literary allusions may induce as many groans as chuckles, its mix of surrealism, satire and adventure proves to be totally absorbing.

David Cote