History Literature / NurseryCrime

* AmbiguousSituation: Jack and Madeleine's marriage is put through the wringer after she finds out that Jack has been hiding the fact that he's a Person of Dubious Reality from her for their whole marriage. Jack assure Madeleine that she likely isn't one... but it's revealed that her maiden name was Usher, and Madeleine Usher was one of the main characters in Creator/EdgarAllanPoe's ''Literature/TheFallOfTheHouseOfUsher''.

* DealWithTheDevil: The secret behind [[spoiler: [[Literature/ThePictureOfDorianGray Dorian Gray's]] cars]] involvings turning the owners' souls over to the devil, in exchange for his own immortality.
* DeceasedFallGuyGambit: {{Defied}}. Jack realizes that [[spoiler: NS4, who were involved in Goldilocks' death, are trying to frame Bartholemew for the same and will probably kill him soon after.]] Jack pretends to take the bait by ordering his arrest, but [[spoiler: secretly tips Bartholemew off, allowing him to go into hiding and escape death.]]

* TanksForTheMemories: The Rambosians store backup memories in jars in their kitchen cabinets

* UnionsSuck: The Guild of Detectives, who care more about whether a crime being solved makes for a good story vs. whether or not the culprit was actually caught; detectives who can make their stories more literary, such as [[SherlockHomage Friedland Chymes]] or [[Literature/{{Poirot}} Hercule Porridge]] enjoy fame and success, while Jack Spratt, the protagonist of the novel, can't even get the press to listen to his statements about how the prosecution in a murder case fell apart.

** In ''The Fourth Bear'', [[spoiler: The BigBad Demetrios, after some VillainousGloating about his many powerful friends, steals Jack's car to make his escape. Fortunately for Jack and unfortunately for him, Jack's car was cursed to kill its driver, and just as Demetrios drives away the curse comes into affect, and Demetrios is crushed to death in a horrible car accident.]]

* MistakenForCheating: [[spoiler:Jack gets a tip from an anonymous source who asks him to meet in a seedy motel room... only to find out it's his AbhorrentAdmirer Agatha Diesel, his boss, Briggs's, wife. A drunk Briggs finds Spratt fleeing the hotel room and punches him out, while Madeleine Spratt hits him over the head with a rolling pin after Briggs informs her.]]

* MistakenForCheating: Jack gets a tip from an anonymous source who asks him to meet in a seedy motel room... only to find out it's his AbhorrentAdmirerer Agatha Diesel, his boss, Briggs's, wife. A drunk Briggs finds Spratt fleeing the hotel room and punches him out, while Madeleine Spratt hits him over the head with a rolling pin after Briggs informs her.

* {{Transplant}}: Jack, Mary, Lord Randolph Spongg, Lola Vavoom, and Prometheus all originate from Jasper Fforde's Literature/ThursdayNext series.

* AllForNothing: Villainous example. [[spoiler:The efforts of Professor [=MacGuffin=], the Small Olympian Bear, and Quang Tech to develop cold fusion from cucumbers ends in failure as the last specimen capable of doing this is dismissed as, after the SOB is killed, it's dismissed as his lunch and thrown away.]]

* ConspiracyTheorist: Agent Parks. The community has a popular magazine.

* DeceasedFallGuyGambit: {{Defied}}. Jack realizes that [[spoiler: MS4, who were involved in Goldilocks' death, are trying to frame Bartholemew for the same and will probably kill him soon after.]] Jack pretends to take the bait by ordering his arrest, but [[spoiler: secretly tips Bartholemew off, allowing him to go into hiding and escape death.]]
* DeadAllAlong: [[spoiler: the Quangle Wangle]] is referred to throughout the book, but near the end is revealed to have died a decade ago.

* UsefulNotes/WorldWarI: The theme park Sommeworld in ''The Fourth Bear''. Construction should be finished by Christmas. No, really.

* GenreBlindness: The nursery characters often don't realize that they are PDR (Persons of Dubious Reality). It's heavily implied that several members of the Nursery Crime Division are nursery characters themselves and are unaware of it, although [[TomatoInTheMirror Jack does show some]] [[GenreSavvy flashes of insight.]] In The Fourth Bear, [[spoiler:it's revealed that Jack did know, but that he had actively forced himself to forget.]]

* PopCulturalOsmosisFailure: Despite Jack's status as a giant killer being a RunningGag throughout the book, he can't quite place his finger on why trading a (painting of a) cow for some magic beans [[Literature/JackAndTheBeanstalk sounds familiar...]]

** The purpose of the Nursery Crime Division is to investigate crimes involving nursery characters, stories, or tropes; for instance, when ''The Big Over Easy'' starts, the Three Little Pigs have gotten off scott free for the murder of the Big Bad Wolf. Prometheus from Mythology/GreekMythology is also a major character in the first book.

* HouseboatHero: Mary lives on a converted flying boat on a Lake, next to other fictional characters including [[Literature/TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea Captain Nemo]].

* BatDeduction: This is actually invoked by many detectives, as it makes for more interesting stories and adaptations. Jack is one of the few who actually prefers to, y'know, investigate crimes. Chymes is easily the most popular detective in Reading. In one of his press confrences he explains that he deduced from some custard on the victim's sock that he was trying to send a message to Chymes, the only person smart enough to figure it out. Custard in French is "creme anglaise", which is an anagram for one of the suspects. Unfortunately, anagram-based clues had recently been ruled inadmissable, so he had to DNA test the crumbs around the fatal gunshot wound, which turned out to be from a certain bakery chain, which they staked out and caught the suspect fingered earlier entering. She immediately confessed. Towards the end, we find that [[spoiler:Friedland Chymes basically faked a case entirely; the person who confessed and got "jailed" was an actor. The implication is that most of his cases, were faked, as well as those of lots of other detectives, which means that there are plenty of murders running around scot-free.]]