The Eyre Affair

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde is a great story about the office of special operations in an alternative history England.   Thursday Next is introduced as a Literica Ops (Special Ops 27) agent who investigates literature issues.   She is plunged into the exciting world of Special Ops 5 when a manuscript is stolen in a bizarre fashion.

The world that Thursday inhabits is an alternative to what we know.  Winston Churchill tripped and died as a child, Wales is a walled off state behind an iron curtain, cloning animals is common with Dodos being favored pets, and airships are the preferred mode of transport as airplanes never became popular.

Above all, this story is fun.   The writing style is entertaining with colorful commentary such as "I was born on a Thursday so my parents named me Thursday.  My brother was born on a Wednesday so they named him Anton."

Also, the story is full of literary references, half of which I'm sure I missed.   The Eyre of the title is none other than Jane Eyre who you meet through the course of the story.
I'll definitely be reading more Thursday Next novels.