The fourth bear - Jasper Fforde

The Gingerbreadman - psychopath, sadist, genius, convicted murderer and biscuit - is loose on the streets of Reading. It isn't Jack Spratt's case. He and Mary Mary have been demoted following Jack's poor judgement involving the poisoning of Mr Bun the baker.

Missing Persons looks like a boring assignment until a chance leads them onto the hunt for missing journalist Henrietta 'Goldy' Hatchett, star reporter for The Daily Toad . The last witnesses to see her alive were The Three Bears, comfortably living out a life of rural solitude in Andersen's wood.

But all is not what it seems. How could the bears' porridge be at such disparate temperatures when they were poured at the same time? Was there a fourth bear? And if there was, who was he, and why did he try to disguise Goldy's death as a freak accident in the nearby SommeWorld first World War theme park?