Book Bites: Three Bags Full

Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Three Bags Full is a delightful premise that fumbles its execution. A flock of sheep investigating the murder of their shepherd should be a whimsical romp. The issue is that Swann doesn't fully lean into her premise. The sheep--of which there are probably too many to fit the narrative--lack agency. The mystery only unfolds with the intervention of humans, and even then it's mostly sheep overhearing conversations. There is a detective, but he is a token at the very end; it would have been more satisfying for the sheep to use the detective as their pawn throughout the narrative. The dénouement is clumsy, plot threads left dangling. The tone aims for depth but only manages to skip across the surface. The sheep are wonderful characters, the mystery well set up, I only wish Three Bags Full embraced the silliness of its premise and allowed the sheep to solve their own mystery.

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