{"id":11670,"date":"2025-10-27T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=11670"},"modified":"2025-10-26T11:42:56","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T15:42:56","slug":"big-bad-wool-by-leonie-swann","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=11670","title":{"rendered":"Big Bad Wool by Leonie Swann"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A murder mystery in which the detective-work is done by a flock of sheep? YMBK. And, if you\u2019ve noticed my preference for realistic crime stories and political thrillers, you\u2019ll probably be surprised that Big Bad Wool<\/em> and its predecessor Three Bags Full <\/em>were two of my favorite books of the last year\u2014sheepy detectives notwithstanding. As testaments to the books\u2019 appeal, Three Bags Full<\/em> has been translated into more than thirty languages and is currently being made into a movie starring Hugh Jackman, Emma Thompson, Bryan Cranston, and others. Big Bad Wool<\/em> was translated from the original German by Amy Bojang.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dark doings occur in these books, including murder. The sheep don\u2019t perfectly understand the human world, of course, but they are observant, patient, and one of them\u2014Miss Maple\u2014is quite clever at putting two and two together. Part of their understanding of humankind has developed through their shepherds\u2019 habit of reading to them each night: mysteries, romances, and, in one disturbing interlude, a text on sheep diseases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this story, Rebecca, their shepherdess, has taken the sheep on a long-promised trip to Europe. She lives in her caravan along with her Mum, a devotee of the Tarot, though sheep keep eating a card here or there, diminishing the deck and people\u2019s possible fortunes. Shepherdess, Mum, and sheep are overwintering alongside a French chateau. Snow is on the meadow and ominous tracks are everywhere. Animals are being found in the forest, brutally murdered. Is a werewolf on the prowl? Rebecca worries about the safety of her sheep, and they worry about hers. The plot becomes complicated, making the story perhaps somewhat overlong, but it\u2019s refreshing seeing the world through the eyes of the animals, and I didn\u2019t mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sheep bring distinct personalities and skills to this adventure. Aside from Miss Maple\u2019s acknowledged cleverness, Mopple has the best memory, Othello is a born leader and learned a lot in his early days living in a zoo, Lane is the fastest runner, and the fearless winter lamb, born out of sync with the sheep calendar, hasn\u2019t acquired a name yet and longs for one.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The sheep meadow is next to a fenced-in herd of goats. The temperamental and attitudinal differences between the species\u2014as well as what you could call their different \u201cskill sets\u201d\u2014prove most entertaining and useful. Swann (a pen name) must be exceptionally observant to render animal behavior so vividly and convincingly. Some things the sheep get wrong, and others they understand quite differently than the humans do\u2014the value of veterinarians, for example\u2014though they have an enviable ability to tell when a human is lying. They go about their sheepy business (mainly focused on eating) in a charming, sheepy way. I hated for this oddly comforting book to end! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

P.S. When the Public Safety Writers Association decided to have a detective-themed costume event at its annual meeting last summer, you can guess mine!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A murder mystery in which the detective-work is done by a flock of sheep? YMBK. And, if you\u2019ve noticed my preference for realistic crime stories and political thrillers, you\u2019ll probably be surprised that Big Bad Wool and its predecessor Three … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1335,61,3,1911,126],"tags":[2316,2315,2317],"class_list":["post-11670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-amateur-detective","category-character","category-mystery","category-nature","category-reading-2","tag-big-bad-wool","tag-leonie-swann","tag-three-bags-full"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-32e","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11670"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11673,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11670\/revisions\/11673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}