Shakespeare for Squirrels is the third book in Christopher Moore's Fool trilogy (following Fool in 2009 and The Serpent of Venice in 2014). While the first book parodied Williams Shakespeare's King Lear and the second blended The Merchant of Venice with Othello (and, to some extent, Edgar Allan Poe's The Cask of Amontillado), Shakespeare for Squirrels builds upon the framework of A Midsummer Night's Dream. (The reason for the "squirrels" in the title won't become clear until fairly late in the book and, let's be honest, it's a tenuous connection at best.)

When Serpent began, the fool Pocket was grieving the loss of his love Cordelia, who had recently died under nefarious circumstances. At the beginning of Squirrels, he's grieving the loss of his love Jessica, who had returned to Venice after a two-year stint of piracy and, in the process, decided to dump him. Not the same sort of bereavement, of course, but he's still sad. And the pirates, without Jessica's protection over him, quickly set Pocket, along with his apprentice Drool, his monkey Jeff and his puppet Jones, adrift at sea, and the quartet ends up in Merry Olde Greece in time for the duke's wedding, a little star-crossed romance, some amateur dramatics, and a whole lot of fairy shenanigans.

This is Ancient Greece, mind you. Theseus -- yes, he who slew the minotaur -- is the duke of Athens, and Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons, is a prize of war and his less than willing bride-to-be. Try not to think about the implications of the time travel that must have occurred somewhere along the way.

Rescued from drowning by the fairy Cobweb, taunted by the hobgoblin Puck, and quite possibly murdered by a city guardsman, Pocket finds himself wandering in the woods, ghostlike, and with a seemingly possessed puppet. Drool has been taken prisoner by the guardsmen, Jeff is missing -- possibly eaten -- and Pocket has lost his hat and is completely out of sorts. Oh, and Puck has just been murdered, so soon the only fool left standing is tasked with various missions by Theseus, Hippolyta, the fairy queen Titania and the goblin king Oberon, all at cross purposes.

Meanwhile, a quartet of bespelled Athenian mortals -- Helena and Hermia, Demetrius and Lysander -- are flouncing about the forest in various stages of love, hate and bewilderment. At the same time, a small band of Athenian tradesmen -- Snout, Snug, Flute, Quince, Starveling and, of course, Bottom -- are rehearsing a play for the big wedding day with questionable results.

There is a great deal of silliness, and no small number of threats, as Pocket tries to solve the murder and find a missing love potion, all while in the company of an ass-headed wannabe thespian and an amorous sprite. As various storylines are resolved, be warned that they don't all follow Shakespeare's usual script, nor does it all take place over the course of a single night, as it does in the play. Oh, and there is a lot more death and goblins than I recall in previous incarnations of Midsummer.

There is a new love interest for Pocket, too, although the relationship here doesn't feel quite as earned as much his prior romances with Cordelia and Jessica. In this case, Pocket and his latest object of affection are more or less just convenient to the plot, and I guess he was lonely.

This is, so far as I am aware, the last book of adventures for our hero Pocket. Sadly, although I enjoyed this book overall and found of it quite funny, it was definitely my least favorite of the Fool trilogy. The story feels more forced, with far too much narrative exposition at the end -- and Moore's chosen tool of explaining things, the mysterious tongue-festooned Rumour, is not nearly as much fun as the omnipresent Chorus who popped up sporadically in Serpent. And, while Fool and Serpent both came to satisfying conclusions, Squirrels just seems to sort of end.

Still, I have thoroughly enjoyed Moore's wildly imaginative excursions into the bosom of the Bard, as they say. This is an excellent use of Shakespeare, and has reignited my interest in Moore's recent writing. I'll have to check it out.