MEME: Crime Fiction Alphabet

Mysteries in Paradise hosts a weekly meme on mystery authors and books, highlighting a different letter each week. Beginning March 2, 2010, posts with the letter T, for author first or last name or book title are being collected here.


T is for Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann

translated from the German by Anthea Bell

genre: mystery fiction

This wasn't too baaad of a mystery. Such a neat idea, to have the flock of sheep investigate the murder of their shepherd. Lots of fodder for the mind. The story does a good job of getting information that only the sheep can hear to the reader, and we can understand a lot more than the sheep, even Miss Maple, quite possibly the cleverest sheep in Ireland. The cast of sheep, includes the requisite black sheep of the flock, Othello, and you can see that there is lots of playful fun with the narrative. The sheep face some of their fears and learn a lot about the world and humans. Some sections got a little confusing and woolly but they were sheep trying to make sense of things and they often got distracted by the need to graze. I can understand that in many ways.

In some ways, the execution of the story wasn't quite as good as the concept, but it was cute, especially if you like sheep. (I've reprinted the review of this book I posted on my blog over a year ago. Once I reread the review, it was kinda cute.)