The Recurring Cast
Character guide · 16 books · 2001 to 2024 · Often set in Swindon

Jasper Fforde

Crime and mysteryFantasyScience fictionYoung adultPolice proceduralPrivate eyeComic fantasyDystopian and post-apocalypticYA fantasy

Jasper Fforde writes playful fantasies set in alternative Britains: Thursday Next, a literary detective who can jump inside books, Jack Spratt of the Nursery Crime Division, and the colour-ranked society of Shades of Grey.

Best estimate, compiled from series guides, publisher descriptions and reviews where available, and from memory otherwise. Book level only, not chapter level. Minor includes cameos and brief references. Each book carries a confidence rating in its tooltip.

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Who appears in which book

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Jasper Fforde books in order

Each series in publication order, with its lead characters. Where the story runs in a different order, switch to Story order. Crossover books are marked and listed under their main series. Use My books to track what you have read.

Thursday Next

7 books · Set in SwindonComic fantasyPrivate eye
  1. 1The Eyre Affair2001With Thursday NextBuy on Amazon
  2. 2Lost in a Good Book2002With Thursday NextBuy on Amazon
  3. 3The Well of Lost Plots2003With Thursday NextBuy on Amazon
  4. 4Something Rotten2004With Thursday NextBuy on Amazon
  5. 5First Among Sequels2007With Thursday NextBuy on Amazon
  6. 6One of Our Thursdays Is Missing2011Buy on Amazon
  7. 7The Woman Who Died a Lot2012With Thursday NextBuy on Amazon

Nursery Crime

2 books · Set in ReadingComic fantasyPolice procedural
  1. 1The Big Over Easy2005With Jack SprattBuy on Amazon
  2. 2The Fourth Bear2006With Jack SprattBuy on Amazon

The Last Dragonslayer

3 books · Set in the Ununited KingdomsComic fantasyYA fantasy
  1. 1The Last Dragonslayer2010With Jennifer StrangeBuy on Amazon
  2. 2The Song of the Quarkbeast2011With Jennifer StrangeBuy on Amazon
  3. 3The Eye of Zoltar2014With Jennifer StrangeBuy on Amazon

Shades of Grey

2 books · Set in ChromataciaComic fantasyDystopian and post-apocalyptic
  1. 1Shades of Grey2009With Eddie RussettBuy on Amazon
  2. 2Red Side Story2024With Eddie RussettBuy on Amazon

Standalone

2 books · Mostly set in WalesComic fantasy
  1. 1Early Riser2018With Charlie WorthingBuy on Amazon
  2. 2The Constant Rabbit2020With Peter Knox · Set in the fictional Much Hemlock, HerefordshireBuy on Amazon

Characters

13 recurring and key characters, with the book each one first appears in.

Thursday Next

Nursery Crime Division

Kazam

Chromatacia

Standalone leads