Items related to Three Bags Full
A witty philosophical murder mystery with a charming twist: the crack detectives are sheep determined to discover who killed their beloved shepherd.
On a hillside near the cozy Irish village of Glennkill, a flock of sheep gathers around their shepherd, George, whose body lies pinned to the ground with a spade. George has cared devotedly for the flock, even reading them books every night. Led by Miss Maple, the smartest sheep in Glennkill (and possibly the world), they set out to find George’s killer.
The A-team of investigators includes Othello, the “bad-boy” black ram; Mopple the Whale, a Merino who eats a lot and remembers everything; and Zora, a pensive black-faced ewe with a weakness for abysses. Joined by other members of the richly talented flock, they engage in nightlong discussions about the crime, wild metaphysical speculations, and embark on reconnaissance missions into the village, where they encounter some likely suspects. Along the way, the sheep confront their own all-too-human struggles with guilt, misdeeds, and unrequited love.
Funny, fresh, and endearing, it introduces a wonderful new breed of detectives to Canadian readers.
On a hillside near the cozy Irish village of Glennkill, a flock of sheep gathers around their shepherd, George, whose body lies pinned to the ground with a spade. George has cared devotedly for the flock, even reading them books every night. Led by Miss Maple, the smartest sheep in Glennkill (and possibly the world), they set out to find George’s killer.
The A-team of investigators includes Othello, the “bad-boy” black ram; Mopple the Whale, a Merino who eats a lot and remembers everything; and Zora, a pensive black-faced ewe with a weakness for abysses. Joined by other members of the richly talented flock, they engage in nightlong discussions about the crime, wild metaphysical speculations, and embark on reconnaissance missions into the village, where they encounter some likely suspects. Along the way, the sheep confront their own all-too-human struggles with guilt, misdeeds, and unrequited love.
Funny, fresh, and endearing, it introduces a wonderful new breed of detectives to Canadian readers.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author:
Leonie Swann earned degrees in philosophy, psychology, and communications from Munich University and has worked in journalism and public relations. Currently working on her doctorate in English literature, she lives in Berlin.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:
1
Othello Boldly Grazes Past
"He was healthy yesterday," said Maude. Her ears twitched nervously.
"That doesn't mean anything," pointed out Sir Ritchfield, the oldest ram in the flock. "He didn't die of an illness. Spades are not an illness."
The shepherd was lying in the green Irish grass beside the hay barn, not far from the path through the fields. He didn't move. A single crow had settled on his woolly Norwegian sweater and was studying his internal arrangements with professional interest. Beside the crow sat a very happy rabbit. Rather farther off, close to the edge of the cliff, the sheep were holding a meeting.
They had kept calm that morning when they found their shepherd lying there so unusually cold and lifeless, and were extremely proud of it. In the first flush of alarm, naturally there had been a few frantic cries of "Who's going to bring us hay now?" and "A wolf! There's a wolf about!," but Miss Maple had been quick to quell any panic. She explained that here on the greenest, richest pasture in all Ireland only idiots would eat hay in midsummer anyway, and even the most sophisticated wolves didn't drive spades through the bodies of their victims. For such a tool was undoubtedly sticking out of the shepherd's insides, which were now wet with dew.
Miss Maple was the cleverest sheep in all Glennkill. Some even claimed that she was the cleverest sheep in the world, but no one could prove it. There was in fact an annual Smartest Sheep in Glennkill contest, but Maple's extraordinary intelligence showed in the very fact that she did not take part in such competitions. The winner, after being crowned with a wreath of shamrock (which it was then allowed to eat), spent several days touring the pubs of the neighboring villages, and was constantly expected to perform the trick that had erroneously won it the title, eyes streaming as it blinked through clouds of tobacco smoke, with the customers pouring Guinness down its throat until it couldn't stand up properly. Furthermore, from then on the winning sheep's shepherd held it responsible for each and every prank played out at pasture, since the cleverest animal was always going to be the prime suspect.
George Glenn would never again hold any sheep responsible for anything. He lay impaled on the ground beside the path while his sheep wondered what to do next. They were standing on the cliffs between the watery-blue sky and the sky-blue sea, where they couldn't smell the blood, and they did feel responsible.
"He wasn't a specially good shepherd," said Heather, who was still not much more than a lamb and still bore George a grudge for docking her beautiful tail at the end of last winter.
"Exactly!" said Cloud, the woolliest and most magnificent sheep ever seen. "He didn't appreciate our work. Norwegian sheep do it better, he said! Norwegian sheep give more wool! He had sweaters made of foreign wool sent from Norway -- it's a disgrace! What other shepherd would insult his own flock like that?"
There ensued a discussion of some length between Heather, Cloud, and Mopple the Whale. Mopple the Whale insisted that you judged a shepherd's merits by the quantity and quality of the fodder he provided, and in this respect there was nothing, nothing whatsoever, to be said against George Glenn. Finally they agreed that a good shepherd was one who never docked the lambs' tails; didn't keep a sheepdog; provided good fodder and plenty of it, particularly bread and sugar but healthy things too like green stuff, concentrated feed, and mangel-wurzels (for they were all very sensible sheep); and who clothed himself entirely in the products of his own flock, for instance an all-in-one suit made of spun sheep's wool, which would look really good, almost as if he were a sheep himself. Of course it was obvious to them all that no such perfect being was to be found anywhere in the world, but it was a nice idea all the same. They sighed a little, and were about to scatter, pleased to think that they had cleared up all outstanding questions.
So far, however, Miss Maple had taken no part in the discussion. Now she said, "Don't you want to know what he died of?"
Sir Ritchfield looked at her in surprise. "He died of that spade. You wouldn't have survived it either, a heavy iron thing like that driven right through you. No wonder he's dead." Ritchfield shuddered slightly.
"And where did the spade come from?"
"Someone stuck it in him." As far as Sir Ritchfield was concerned, that was the end of the matter, but Othello, the only black sheep in the flock, suddenly began taking an interest in the problem.
"It can only have been a human who did it -- or a very large monkey." Othello had spent his youth in Dublin Zoo and never missed an opportunity to mention it.
"A human." Maple nodded, satisfied. "I think we ought to find out what kind of human. We owe old George that. If a fierce dog took one of our lambs, he always tried to find the culprit. Anyway, he was our shepherd. No one had a right to stick a spade in him. That's wolfish behavior. That's murder."
Now the sheep were feeling alarmed. The wind had changed, and the smell of fresh blood was drifting toward the sea.
"And when we've found the person who stuck the spade in," asked Heather nervously, "then what?"
"Justice!" bleated Othello.
"Justice!" bleated the other sheep. And so it was decided that George Glenn's sheep themselves would solve the wicked murder of their shepherd.
First Miss Maple went over to examine the body. She did it reluctantly: in the summer sun of Ireland, George had already begun to smell bad enough to send a shudder down any sheep's spine.
She started by circling the shepherd at a respectful distance. The crow cawed and fluttered away on black wings. Maple ventured closer, inspected the spade, sniffed George's clothes and face. Finally -- as the rest of the flock, huddling together at a safe distance, held their breaths -- she even stuck her nose in the wound and rooted around. At least, that was what it looked like from where the others stood. She came back to them with blood on her muzzle.
"Well?" asked Mopple, unable to stand the suspense any longer. Mopple never could stand strain of any kind for long.
"He's dead," replied Miss Maple. She didn't seem to want to say any more just now. Then she looked back at the path. "We have to be prepared. Sooner or later humans are going to turn up here. We must watch what they do. And we'd better not all stand around in a crowd; it looks suspicious. We ought to act naturally."
"But we are acting naturally," objected Maude. "George is dead. Murdered. Should we be grazing right beside him where the grass is spattered with his blood?"
"Yes, that's exactly what we ought to be doing." The black figure of Othello came between them. His nostrils contracted as he saw the horrified faces of the others. "Don't worry, I'll do it. I spent my youth near the carnivores' enclosure. A little more blood won't kill me."
At that moment Heather thought what a particularly bold ram Othello was. She decided to graze near him more often in future -- though not until George had been taken away and fresh summer rain had washed the meadow clean, of course.
Miss Maple decided who would keep watch where. Sir Ritchfield, whose eyesight was still good in spite of his advanced age, was stationed on the hill. You could see across the hedges to the paved road from there. Mopple the Whale had poor eyes but a good memory. He stood beside Ritchfield to remember everything the old ram saw. Heather and Cloud were to watch the path that ran through the meadow: Heather took up her post by the gate nearest to the village; Cloud stood where the path disappeared into a dip in the ground. Zora, a Blackface sheep who had a good head for heights, stationed herself on a narrow rocky ledge at the top of the cliff to keep watch on the beach below. Zora claimed to have a wild mountain sheep in her ancestry, and when you saw how confidently she moved above the abyss you could almost believe it.
Othello disappeared into the shadow of the dolmen, near the place where George lay pinned to the ground by the spade. Miss Maple did not keep watch herself. She stood by the water trough, trying to wash the traces of blood off her nose.
The rest of the sheep acted naturally.
A little later Tom O'Malley, no longer entirely sober, came along the footpath from Golagh to Glennkill to favor the local pub with his custom. The fresh air did him good: the green grass, the blue sky. Gulls pursued their prey, calling, wheeling in the air so fast that it made his head spin. George's sheep were grazing peacefully. Picturesque. Like a travel brochure. One sheep had ventured particularly far out, and was enthroned like a small white lion on the cliff itself.
"Hey there, little sheep," said Tom, "don't you take a tumble now. It'd be a shame for a pretty thing like you to fall."
The sheep looked at him with disdain, and he suddenly felt stupid. Stupid and drunk. But that was all in the past now. He'd make something of himself. In the tourism line. That was it, the future of Glennkill lay in the tourist trade. He must go and talk it over with the lads in the pub.
But first he wanted to take a closer look at the fine black ram. Four horns. Unusual, that. George's sheep were something special.
However, the black ram wouldn't let him close enough, and easily avoided Tom's hand without even moving much.
Then Tom saw the spade.
A good spade. He could do with a spade like that. He decided to consider it his spade in future. For now he'd hide it under the dolmen, and come back to fetch it after dark. He didn't much like the idea of going to the dolme...
Othello Boldly Grazes Past
"He was healthy yesterday," said Maude. Her ears twitched nervously.
"That doesn't mean anything," pointed out Sir Ritchfield, the oldest ram in the flock. "He didn't die of an illness. Spades are not an illness."
The shepherd was lying in the green Irish grass beside the hay barn, not far from the path through the fields. He didn't move. A single crow had settled on his woolly Norwegian sweater and was studying his internal arrangements with professional interest. Beside the crow sat a very happy rabbit. Rather farther off, close to the edge of the cliff, the sheep were holding a meeting.
They had kept calm that morning when they found their shepherd lying there so unusually cold and lifeless, and were extremely proud of it. In the first flush of alarm, naturally there had been a few frantic cries of "Who's going to bring us hay now?" and "A wolf! There's a wolf about!," but Miss Maple had been quick to quell any panic. She explained that here on the greenest, richest pasture in all Ireland only idiots would eat hay in midsummer anyway, and even the most sophisticated wolves didn't drive spades through the bodies of their victims. For such a tool was undoubtedly sticking out of the shepherd's insides, which were now wet with dew.
Miss Maple was the cleverest sheep in all Glennkill. Some even claimed that she was the cleverest sheep in the world, but no one could prove it. There was in fact an annual Smartest Sheep in Glennkill contest, but Maple's extraordinary intelligence showed in the very fact that she did not take part in such competitions. The winner, after being crowned with a wreath of shamrock (which it was then allowed to eat), spent several days touring the pubs of the neighboring villages, and was constantly expected to perform the trick that had erroneously won it the title, eyes streaming as it blinked through clouds of tobacco smoke, with the customers pouring Guinness down its throat until it couldn't stand up properly. Furthermore, from then on the winning sheep's shepherd held it responsible for each and every prank played out at pasture, since the cleverest animal was always going to be the prime suspect.
George Glenn would never again hold any sheep responsible for anything. He lay impaled on the ground beside the path while his sheep wondered what to do next. They were standing on the cliffs between the watery-blue sky and the sky-blue sea, where they couldn't smell the blood, and they did feel responsible.
"He wasn't a specially good shepherd," said Heather, who was still not much more than a lamb and still bore George a grudge for docking her beautiful tail at the end of last winter.
"Exactly!" said Cloud, the woolliest and most magnificent sheep ever seen. "He didn't appreciate our work. Norwegian sheep do it better, he said! Norwegian sheep give more wool! He had sweaters made of foreign wool sent from Norway -- it's a disgrace! What other shepherd would insult his own flock like that?"
There ensued a discussion of some length between Heather, Cloud, and Mopple the Whale. Mopple the Whale insisted that you judged a shepherd's merits by the quantity and quality of the fodder he provided, and in this respect there was nothing, nothing whatsoever, to be said against George Glenn. Finally they agreed that a good shepherd was one who never docked the lambs' tails; didn't keep a sheepdog; provided good fodder and plenty of it, particularly bread and sugar but healthy things too like green stuff, concentrated feed, and mangel-wurzels (for they were all very sensible sheep); and who clothed himself entirely in the products of his own flock, for instance an all-in-one suit made of spun sheep's wool, which would look really good, almost as if he were a sheep himself. Of course it was obvious to them all that no such perfect being was to be found anywhere in the world, but it was a nice idea all the same. They sighed a little, and were about to scatter, pleased to think that they had cleared up all outstanding questions.
So far, however, Miss Maple had taken no part in the discussion. Now she said, "Don't you want to know what he died of?"
Sir Ritchfield looked at her in surprise. "He died of that spade. You wouldn't have survived it either, a heavy iron thing like that driven right through you. No wonder he's dead." Ritchfield shuddered slightly.
"And where did the spade come from?"
"Someone stuck it in him." As far as Sir Ritchfield was concerned, that was the end of the matter, but Othello, the only black sheep in the flock, suddenly began taking an interest in the problem.
"It can only have been a human who did it -- or a very large monkey." Othello had spent his youth in Dublin Zoo and never missed an opportunity to mention it.
"A human." Maple nodded, satisfied. "I think we ought to find out what kind of human. We owe old George that. If a fierce dog took one of our lambs, he always tried to find the culprit. Anyway, he was our shepherd. No one had a right to stick a spade in him. That's wolfish behavior. That's murder."
Now the sheep were feeling alarmed. The wind had changed, and the smell of fresh blood was drifting toward the sea.
"And when we've found the person who stuck the spade in," asked Heather nervously, "then what?"
"Justice!" bleated Othello.
"Justice!" bleated the other sheep. And so it was decided that George Glenn's sheep themselves would solve the wicked murder of their shepherd.
First Miss Maple went over to examine the body. She did it reluctantly: in the summer sun of Ireland, George had already begun to smell bad enough to send a shudder down any sheep's spine.
She started by circling the shepherd at a respectful distance. The crow cawed and fluttered away on black wings. Maple ventured closer, inspected the spade, sniffed George's clothes and face. Finally -- as the rest of the flock, huddling together at a safe distance, held their breaths -- she even stuck her nose in the wound and rooted around. At least, that was what it looked like from where the others stood. She came back to them with blood on her muzzle.
"Well?" asked Mopple, unable to stand the suspense any longer. Mopple never could stand strain of any kind for long.
"He's dead," replied Miss Maple. She didn't seem to want to say any more just now. Then she looked back at the path. "We have to be prepared. Sooner or later humans are going to turn up here. We must watch what they do. And we'd better not all stand around in a crowd; it looks suspicious. We ought to act naturally."
"But we are acting naturally," objected Maude. "George is dead. Murdered. Should we be grazing right beside him where the grass is spattered with his blood?"
"Yes, that's exactly what we ought to be doing." The black figure of Othello came between them. His nostrils contracted as he saw the horrified faces of the others. "Don't worry, I'll do it. I spent my youth near the carnivores' enclosure. A little more blood won't kill me."
At that moment Heather thought what a particularly bold ram Othello was. She decided to graze near him more often in future -- though not until George had been taken away and fresh summer rain had washed the meadow clean, of course.
Miss Maple decided who would keep watch where. Sir Ritchfield, whose eyesight was still good in spite of his advanced age, was stationed on the hill. You could see across the hedges to the paved road from there. Mopple the Whale had poor eyes but a good memory. He stood beside Ritchfield to remember everything the old ram saw. Heather and Cloud were to watch the path that ran through the meadow: Heather took up her post by the gate nearest to the village; Cloud stood where the path disappeared into a dip in the ground. Zora, a Blackface sheep who had a good head for heights, stationed herself on a narrow rocky ledge at the top of the cliff to keep watch on the beach below. Zora claimed to have a wild mountain sheep in her ancestry, and when you saw how confidently she moved above the abyss you could almost believe it.
Othello disappeared into the shadow of the dolmen, near the place where George lay pinned to the ground by the spade. Miss Maple did not keep watch herself. She stood by the water trough, trying to wash the traces of blood off her nose.
The rest of the sheep acted naturally.
A little later Tom O'Malley, no longer entirely sober, came along the footpath from Golagh to Glennkill to favor the local pub with his custom. The fresh air did him good: the green grass, the blue sky. Gulls pursued their prey, calling, wheeling in the air so fast that it made his head spin. George's sheep were grazing peacefully. Picturesque. Like a travel brochure. One sheep had ventured particularly far out, and was enthroned like a small white lion on the cliff itself.
"Hey there, little sheep," said Tom, "don't you take a tumble now. It'd be a shame for a pretty thing like you to fall."
The sheep looked at him with disdain, and he suddenly felt stupid. Stupid and drunk. But that was all in the past now. He'd make something of himself. In the tourism line. That was it, the future of Glennkill lay in the tourist trade. He must go and talk it over with the lads in the pub.
But first he wanted to take a closer look at the fine black ram. Four horns. Unusual, that. George's sheep were something special.
However, the black ram wouldn't let him close enough, and easily avoided Tom's hand without even moving much.
Then Tom saw the spade.
A good spade. He could do with a spade like that. He decided to consider it his spade in future. For now he'd hide it under the dolmen, and come back to fetch it after dark. He didn't much like the idea of going to the dolme...
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherDoubleday Canada
- Publication date2007
- ISBN 10 038566379X
- ISBN 13 9780385663793
- BindingHardcover
- Number of pages352
- Rating
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