Three Bags Full
Having read an awful lot of Victorian literature of late, I must say I really looked forward to reading the "internationally bestselling" crime-busting comedy novel Three Bags Full - a novel we are told on the back cover that is "Refreshingly, joyously different". Written by first-time author Leonie Swann Three Bags Full is actually a translation from the German original Glennkill and is no ordinary detective story, no indeed, for Three Bags Full is a novel about crime-busting sheep.
All well and good you might think, a novel translated from German about crime-fighting sheep in Ireland, and indeed you wouldn't be wrong to be mildly amused by the concept for the first few chapters.
Set in a field in the fictional location of Glennkill in Ireland the plot follows the exploits of said sheep led by the originally named "Miss Maple", as they attempt to solve the murder of their beloved shepherd George. The idea of a group of sheep trying to solve the murder of their shepherd seems at first glance, quite novel (excuse the pun) and is certainly carried out with some skill by new writer Swann, though as I was reading I constantly found myself wondering just how much has been lost in translation. Germany is not after all famous for its humour, and as I swiftly made my way through the text I found myself wondering whether I should be laughing more, or indeed in some instances laughing at all as the book seemed very much devoid of humour aside from in its situation.
The problem you see is this: once you get over the initially humorous concept of a field of crime-fighting sheep, and you get over the stunningly originally named sheep (yes there is a black sheep, and yes his name is Othello), the book seems lacking in anything else substantial, or indeed of any note. If we can take a moment to consider the issue of sheep names, I accept the fact sheep are generally named typically bland and un-original names, and I can even accept the naming of the one black sheep Othello as this seems the sort of thing an Irish shepherd might well do. My problem however lies in the central protagonist Miss Maple. Is it not enough that she as a character possesses many of the traits older readers might well associate with Agatha Christie novels? Do we really need what was already blindingly obvious to most of us to be signposted so?
Apparently we do. You see if we weren't all constantly reminded of the fact that the author has read (wait for it) other books and is in the process of creating what the Sunday Telegraph refers to as a "Refreshingly, joyously different" novel, then we might well find ourselves questioning exactly why we're reading a re-hash of pretty much every other detective novel in existence!
And it gets better too. I'm really not giving too much away here to tell you the ever beloved shepherd George is found murdered with a spade through him. Sound familiar? That's because it's almost an exact copy of Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Yes Leonie Swann has apparently read this book as well, and has decided it might be clever and original to swap the poodle with a shepherd and wait for it, instead of people solving the murder, it's sheep!
So there you have it, the book summed up in the space of a few hundred words. I think I've pretty much covered all the important and indeed humorous content of the novel in the above paragraphs. If you do decide to take a gamble on this book and hope that I may well indeed be wrong in my assessment, might I suggest you skip straight to the "Smartest Sheep in Glennkill" contest near the end and be done with the rest. You'd certainly save yourself some time.
