Shakespeare for Squirrels

Shipwrecked and washed up near Athens with his dim-witted apprentice Drool and a monkey named Jeff, the fool Pocket stumbles into the tangled woods where lovers are quarreling, amateur actors are rehearsing, and mischievous fairies are meddling with everyone's hearts. Then the sprite Puck turns up dead, and Pocket — the last person seen with him — is the prime suspect.

To clear his name, the jester turns reluctant detective, working the case through a court of squabbling fairies, a jealous Oberon and Titania, a band of hapless mechanicals, and four love-addled young Athenians who can't keep track of who adores whom.

Christopher Moore sets his foul-mouthed fool loose in the world of A Midsummer Night's Dream, spinning Shakespeare's comedy into a bawdy murder mystery. The third Pocket novel is silly, filthy, and affectionately steeped in the Bard.