A flock of sheep gather around their shepherd who is lying on the ground with a spade stuck in his body. They’ve never seen anything like this in their meadow near the Irish village of Glennkill. They’re very fond of George and worry about what will happen to them now. Who will read books to them and explain the difficult words? So they decide to find his killer.
I wasn’t sure what to expect from this unusual story but found it not only clever but remarkably consistent in the way the ovine protagonists are presented. They know only what a sheep might be expected to know, at least one with a shepherd like George. For example, they think the priest Father Will is named God because of the way he talks about himself.
They can’t interview suspects, since they can’t talk to people directly, so they must watch and listen and make inferences from what they gather. “You shouldn’t believe what you don’t understand. You should understand what you believe.”
Sometimes this can cause confusion, such as when they misinterpret what’s happening, but I found that just another layer of the puzzle. Mostly their opinions of the humans around them are both simple and profound. “Maple thought optimistically that human beings, on their good days, weren’t much dimmer than sheep. Or at least, not much dimmer than dim sheep.”
I also liked that the pacing is a little slow in the beginning. The story takes its time to settle in and let us get to know the various sheep and humans. I loved how the flock continues to follow George’s routine after his death and their sense of what makes for a good life.
The plot itself is satisfyingly twisty, but the real joy is in the characters. We joke about sheep being followers, but each of these remarkable animals has a strongly individual personality. My favorites include Miss Maple, who is said to be the smartest sheep in Glennkill, and Mopple the Whale, who provides comic relief and surprising support; his hunger is as reliable as his memory. And the ram Othello, who knows the most about the outside world because he was once confined in the Dublin Zoo; he knows what it is to be alone.
Reading and books are a slight thread through the book. After all, much that the sheep have learned about the world and about humans comes from the books that George has read to them. “Cordelia was thinking how human beings can invent words, how they can line up their invented words side by side on paper. It was magic.”
A movie based on the book is due to come out in May 2026, but I recommend reading the book first to experience the wit and charm of the story told entirely through the sheep’s point of view.
What is the most unusual mystery you’ve read?