The Trouble with Goats and Sheep
A Novel
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3.8 • 104 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
“I loved this book. It's one of those books that you just want to give to everybody.” —Nancy Pearl on NPR’s Morning Edition
“An astute, engaging debut” (Publishers Weekly), The Trouble with Goats and Sheep is a quirky and utterly charming tale of a community in need of reconciliation and two girls learning what it means to belong.
England, 1976. Mrs. Creasy is missing and the Avenue is alive with whispers. The neighbors blame her sudden disappearance on the heat wave, but ten-year-olds Grace and Tilly aren’t convinced, and decide to take matters into their own hands.
Spunky, spirited Grace and quiet, thoughtful Tilly go door to door in search of clues. The cul-de-sac starts to give up its secrets, and the amateur detectives uncover more than they ever imagined. A complicated history of deception begins to emerge—everyone on the Avenue has something to hide.
During that sweltering summer, the lives of all the neighbors begin to unravel. The girls come to realize that the lies told to conceal what happened one fateful day about a decade ago are the same ones Mrs. Creasy was starting to peel back just before she disappeared...
“A thoughtful tale of loyalty and friendship, family dynamics and human nature” (Kirkus Reviews), this glorious debut is part coming-of-age story, part mystery. The Trouble with Goats and Sheep radiates an unmistakable warmth and intelligence and is “rife with tiny extraordinaries” (The New York Times Book Review). “Joanna Cannon is an author to watch” (Booklist, starred review).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In her astute, engaging debut, Cannon uses the New Testament parable of the title (in which Jesus separates the good and evil on Judgment Day) to illustrate, wryly and with pinpoint accuracy, the righteous indignation and small-mindedness of a group of gossipy English suburbanites. The citizens ardently believe in their own goodness, and the evil of the man who lives at #11: Walter Bishop. It's 1976, during the hottest summer anyone can remember, when Margaret Creasy disappears. Most think Walter killed Margaret, but it's just as likely (or more) that someone else did; as everyone's confidante, Margaret knew about the secret punishments the citizens inflicted on Walter. Ten-year-old Grace takes a different approach, taking a local vicar at his word when he promises that if her neighbors find God, no one will be lost. She and her best friend, Tilly, will hunt for God undercover among their neighbors to find Margaret. Cannon, a psychiatrist, builds her narrative by slowly revealing backstories as the girls conduct their search, and the pieces of an entirely different sort of mystery than the one under investigation cleverly come together. This is an insightful, offbeat mystery.
Customer Reviews
The Trouble with Goats and Sheep
I smiled my way all the way through this.
Disappointing
The ending did not wrap up things satisfactorily. I felt like I wasted my time reading this.