Everyone's favourite Book World heroine, Thursday Next, returns in her fifth adventure - by Number One bestselling author Jasper Fforde.

The fifth book in the phenomenally successful Thursday Next series, from Number One bestselling author Jasper Fforde.

'Ingenious - I'll watch Jasper Fforde nervously' Terry Pratchett on The Eyre Affair

Fourteen years after she pegged out at 1988 SuperHoop, Thursday Next is grappling with a recalcitrant new apprentice, the death of Sherlock Holmes and the inexplicable departure of comedy from the once-hilarious Thomas Hardy novels.

Her idle sixteen-year-old would rather sleep all day than save the world from imminent destruction, the government has a dangerously high stupidity surplues, and the Stiltonista Cheese Mafia are causing trouble for Thursday in her hometown of Swindon.

Then things begin to get bad. As Reality Book Shows look set to transplant Reality TV Shows and Goliath invent a trans-fictional tourist coach, Thursday must once again have her wits about her as she travels to the very limits of acceptable narrative possibilities to rescue the reading experience from almost certain destruction . . .

"'Once you read one - you'll be hooked.'" - David Baldacci

"'Fforde's books are more than just an ingenious idea. They are written with buoyant zest and are tautly plotted. They have empathetic heroes and heroines who nearly make terrible mistakes and suitably dastardly villains who do. They also have more twists and turns than Christie, and are embellished with the rich details of Dickens or Pratchett'" - Independent

"A riot of puns, in-jokes and literary allusions that Fforde carries off with aplomb" - Daily Mail

"'Fforde is a master entertainer, and a wordsmith of dexterous genius.'" - Scotsman

"'Fans of the late Douglas Adams, or, even, Monty Python, will feel at home with Fforde'" - Herald