This book was named SFX Magazine's best book of the year, according to the cover, and to quote the cover, SFX described the book as "unputdownable."
I found it very "putdownable." To begin with, I was just put off by the premise, a city of living toys and of nursery rhyme characters. But I kept up with the story because it had been recommended to me as a fun read. So a series of violent murders, described in loving detail, occur. One of the murders is presented as being gruesomely funny. I didn't think it funny, just gruesome. A hollow chocolate bunny is left at the scene of each murder. Maybe I missed it, but I never found where the significance of these bunnies is explained. True, there is a lot of nonsense in the book. One of the running jokes that is that one of the main characters, a toy bear, has no thumbs and it greatly inconveniences his life.
The two main characters are Jack, a young outsider just arrived in Toy City, and Eddie, the toy bear. Eddie is the associate of one Bill Winkie, who is a private detective. Winkie was paid to investigate the really nasty murder of Humpty Dumpty but Winkie has vanished. Eddie ropes Jack into helping him carry on the investigation but then the bodies start piling up, including Little Boy Blue and Mother Goose. Eddie and Jack realize they have a serial killer on their hands, a serial killer who is taking aim at all the big names of Toy City.
This book was an OK read. There is a lot of silly stuff in it that is supposed to be funny but I guess it just didn't appeal to me. I found the book kind of juvenile, except that the murders are just too gruesome to be appropriate for juvenile reading matter. I had never read any of this author's books before, but apparently he has published lots of novels. Maybe I just happened across a dud. It happens, even among the best writers.
If you are a fan of his works, then you would probably enjoy this story too.
Review from Publishers Weekly: https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-575-07401-9.
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