Have you ever come to a book with absolutely no expectations? I did not know anything about The Trouble with Goats and Sheep or the author, Joanna Cannon; one of my best literary friends lent me the book and I just dove into it.
It is set in 1976 England and people in the cul-de-sac are blasted by a seemingly unending heat wave and bamboozled by the sudden disappearance of Mrs. Creasy.
Not to worry, there are two amateur detectives on the case: ten year-olds Grace and Tilly decide to look for Mrs. Creasy and they extend their missing persons’ search to look for God Himself. And maybe He can do something about the heat if they find Him?
Grace is the narrator and her narrative voice was one of the highlights of the book: “My mother said I was at an awkward age. I didn’t feel especially awkward, so I presumed she meant that it was awkward for them.” She’s got that ten-year old innocence but also gives us funny and perceptive comments about adults that feel so true.
This is an ‘iceberg’ book – what we see on the surface is only a small part of the whole. Every member of the community has secrets buried under the veneer of respectability: there is arson, baby-kidnapping, and a group of neighbours sworn to secrecy – but WHAT is the secret? Our two amateur detectives stumble into these mysteries as they search for Mrs. Creasy and they come into contact with the cul-de-sac’s social pariah, but is he has bad as everyone says he is?
All of these details made the book feel like a mystery. And I’d flopped into a bit of lazy reading; I expected a neat resolution at the end, with everything tied with a bow. That didn’t happen. I had to shake myself out of my funk and go back and re-read certain parts to try and work things out for myself.
