Three Bags Full : a sheep detective story by Leonie Swann

When shepherd, George Glenn, is found in his field with a spade driven through his body, the sheep he leaves behind takeit upon themselves to solve the murder. The victim's habit of reading to his flock has rendered the animals unusually intelligent,and each sheep contributes his or her own talent as they observe the villagers of Glennkill in hopes of uncovering the mystery.The best detectives in the flock appear to be the brilliant Miss Maple, smart enough to avoid the trivial "Smartest Sheepin Glennkill" contest, the bold black ram Othello, and the all-remembering (and all-eating) Mopple the Whale. As the sheep piece together clues and debate motives, they find that there's no shortage of suspects: "Bible-thumping Beth" paid George frequent visits, George's wife Kate was unhappy, the neighboring shepherd Gabriel has a strange flock of non-fleecy sheep, and the flock's favorite human to place under suspicion, Ham the Butcher, always smells of "screams, pain, and blood."

This story has an interesting premise and I found it rather facinating. The sheep have a particular view of the world and try to associate everything to what they know. The confusion with "grass" is a prime example of what it means to humans versus the sheep. The novel is not fast paced and the ending comes to a satisfying conclusion as they discover that murder does not mean someone else did it. There is a nice addition of the sheep drawn on the bottom of each page, if you flick the pages the sheep gambol, which is cute.