When I heard the phrase “sheep detectives,” I admit, I wasn’t sure about how (or even if) such a premise would work. But Big Bad Wool sold me on the idea—maybe not that sheep make the most skilled detectives, but the fact that a flock of them working together just might solve a case.
I’m not the least sheepish to welcome Leonie Swann to the Cluesletter to discuss animal sleuthing, working with a translator, and more. Offbeat, suspenseful, and just darn cute, Big Bad Wool is for those of us who are looking for a different kind of crime novel (maybe one without so many pesky humans).
Connect with Leonie on Instagram, and grab your copy of Big Bad Wool from your retailer of choice here.
Welcome, Leonie! Big Bad Wool is the highly anticipated sequel to your 2005 hit Three Bags Full. Both books follow an enterprising flock of sheep as they solve mysterious crimes. What makes these sheep so capable of solving crime?
On the surface of it: nothing at all. That’s what makes it so interesting to watch them investigate. Objectively speaking, there is very little that recommends sheep for detective work. They have spent their whole life in a meadow. They know barely anything about human society, and what little they know they have learned from questionable romance novels. They can’t interview suspects – they can’t speak to people at all. The odds are stacked against them and, in my opinion, watching them persevere in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles is one of the great allures of the book. It is uplifting to see them struggle and ultimately succeed.
Because there is a point when the whole thing flips, when you as a reader realize that they are actually doing a very respectable job. There is very little wool over their eyes and underneath all that fleece they are astute observers of human behavior. Their theories may be zany and involve way too much hay, but they certainly don’t think inside the box – they probably don’t even know what a box is. This naïve approach means that the sheep are incredibly unbiased in their observations. Add to that an acute sense of smell that tells them facts a human would overlook, and a great team player attitude, and you end up with a surprisingly capable bunch of investigators. While every single sheep is hampered by its own ovine fears and limitations, together they are a flock to be reckoned with.
I loved how you played with the sheep’s perspectives—the dramatic irony in us knowing what the sheep are describing, while the sheep themselves interpret it in their own way. Did you find this challenging or enjoyable to write?
Both, obviously. It is great fun to ask yourself what a sheep would make of a certain situation, or our human world in general – and once you get the hang of it, it is also shockingly intuitive. I believe this is one of the reasons why the story works: In our own way we are herd animals, too, and it is easy to empathize with the sheep’s food-based and fear-based approach to life.
On the other hand, the average human reader is likely to be much more at home in mystery novels than the sheep will ever be. He or she knows how crime fiction is supposed to work and will be able to see through the sheep’s wild speculations. Keeping things sheepish enough for the ovines while making the plot transparent for the human reader is a constant balancing act, but it also allows for a lot of irony, fun and some surprising philosophical insights. I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of writing it.
Having read (and enjoyed!) The Sunset Years of Agnes Sharp, I have to ask: What do you like writing more, human detectives or sheep detectives? Did your approach to writing the Miss Sharp Investigates series differ from the Sheep Detective books?
On one level, there is surprisingly little difference. People are sheep, too. Just like our ovine friends we are social animals, constantly torn between individuality and conformity, personal fear and greed, and the warm but demanding embrace of a flock. This is one of the reasons why sheep are great protagonists.
That being said, writing from a sheep point of view is very restrictive. While this is a creative challenge and often inspiring, your options as a storyteller are limited. When I started the Agnes series, it was quite refreshing to deal with characters who could pick up the phone (or anything else, for that matter), read a letter, or – shock and horror – use the internet (inexpertly). As a writer, you find yourself with a much bigger toolbox to drive the plot forward. However, once again I deliberately chose protagonists, who are not exactly running full steam. The retired detectives of the Sunset Years are all well past their prime, and they wrestle not only with murderers, but also with the pitfalls of old age.
Whether you are a sheep, who can’t read in the first place, or an old lady who has forgotten her reading glasses, we are all imperfect creatures struggling to make sense of an imperfect world. That’s what intrigues me, and that’s what my stories are about. Solving murders is just the icing on the cake.
Can you share some insight into the translation process? How did you work with your translator, Amy Bojang, to bring this story to life in English?
I simply love the translation process! I know there is a lot of talk about things being lost in translation, but things can be found in translation too. I work quite closely with my translator Amy and it always gives me joy when she comes up with an English expression that just fits the story and the situation perfectly. Sure, not every pun works in both languages and sometimes you need a new approach to a certain aspect of the text, but generally speaking I feel that the process gives me a chance to hone the text, to get the absolute best out of it for an English-speaking audience. If there are translation issues, we bounce ideas off each other until one of us comes up with a good solution – it’s very satisfying. Experiencing the text in translation is the closest I will ever get to reading a book of mine for the first time – still my story, but no longer my words. It really is exciting!
Lastly, what’s next for you? Are you currently working on any new projects, and/or do you have anything else you’d like to share?Right now I am seriously toying (yes, you can seriously toy – I’ve been doing it for months now) with a new sheep adventure, continuing the story of Three Bags Full and Big Bad Wool. The process of translating and editing the English language versions has brought the flock back into view, and I realized that I miss them quite a bit. There are a lot of very endearing sheep characters that are close to my heart. I always get readers’ requests to “do more sheep,” and for many years, I have been resisting. You cannot step into the same river twice, for other waters are ever flowing onto you, to quote Heraclitus. I do not believe in endlessly repeating a formula. For me, every story has to be unique to a certain extent, to catch you off guard, to surprise you. The challenge now is to build something that readers will recognize and enjoy, while finding new and hopefully fresh aspects of the theme. I have been ruminating on this for quite a while, and, slowly but steadily, it is coming together.
Thanks so much to Leonie for the interview. Detectives, I hope you enjoyed it! If you aren’t already subscribed, please be sure to sign up for the Cluesletter and get author features like this alongside other mystery goodies, delivered to your inbox every other Tuesday.