First Among Sequels

First Among Sequels, the fifth book in Jasper Fforde’s sci-fi series about Thursday Next, a detective who polices the mean streets of fiction itself, has no plot — just a lot of wacky subplots involving time travel, illicit cheese, and Thursday Next doppelgängers, who reside in a best-selling series of Thursday Next novels. Yep: It’s gonzo. Wonderfully, brain-bustingly, sometimes overwhelmingly gonzo. Wordplay and wild ideas abound, but things really don’t get cooking until Sherlock Holmes is murdered. It all builds toward an apocalyptic climax that leaves Thursday in deep metafictional peril — and fans impatient for another sequel. B+