Let’s Read For Fun: Big Bad Wool, by Leonie Swann

Hey Funners -
If you read only one sheep detective story this year, I hope it is Big Bad Wool, our selection for March.

From the publisher: "With one solved mystery under their wooly belts, the time has come for the sheep of Glennkill to explore Europe. Together with their new shepherdess, Rebecca, they move into their winter quarters in the shadow of a French chateau. But their new home is far from idyllic. A number of sheep from a previous flock have disappeared, and deer are dying unnatural deaths in the forest."

The world’s smartest sheep, Miss Maple is on case, but does the whole fuzzy flock have the wool-power to protect themselves and their shepherd and solve the mystery of what happened to the deer, the some humans, and the previous sheep?

The mystery is afoot! (a-hoof?) The locals think that there is un loup garou (werewolf!) and that it is coming for all of them! The Chateau is a former insane asylum, some of the former patients are hanging around, the sheep form an alliance with a herd of goats, there is a mysterious spy (CIA? MI-6?) hanging around, and the sheep even consult the mystical Tarot cards to help in their quest! (And trust me, Sheep and Tarot cards do mix!) It’s a clash of cultures, and maybe the sheep understand the humans better than the humans do. Insights abound!

This is a sequel, but it stands alone just fine. The first book, “Three Bags Full” is being released as a movie this spring, and was a Read-For-Fun favorite in 2024.

As always, you don’t have to finish reading the book to participate, but there will be spoilers (a discussion of a murder mystery with a werewolf and sheep detectives is bound to reveal something) so please forgive us.

I hope to see everyone there... wearing your finest woolies!