Big Bad Wool is an offbeat mystery featuring anthropomorphic animal "sleuths" alongside humans written by Leonie Swann. Originally released in German in 2009, this English language translation was released by Soho Press on their Soho Crime imprint. It's 384 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. Paperback due out from the same publisher in late 2nd quarter 2026. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links throughout. For readers who are familiar with the author's Agnes Sharp books, this book is in much the same vein.
Definitely whimsical and at the same time brooding and off-kilter, this is an atmospheric mystery told in parallel third person perspective from both the sheep and human characters. The human dialogue is related in sheep-perspective and none of them are particularly intellectually gifted (even for sheep). The spend most of the book trying to avoid the vet and the shadowy malign "shapeshifter" who's stalking the locals.
The translation work by Amy Bojang is seamless and works perfectly, without clunky or awkward scansion or diction.
The unabridged audiobook has a run time of 12 hours 24 minutes and is capably read by series narrator Caroline Lennon. She has a well modulated light alto voice and does a great job of the -massive- cast of characters, including sheep, goats, and humans (of a range of accents from Irish to French). It's a huge cast of characters and she does a good job of delineating them. The print formats include a dramatis personae list, and it's probably worth accessing.
Although it's the second book, it works well enough as a standalone, and it's not necessary to have read them in order to figure out what's going on. It's an odd book, and would make a good choice for public library acquisition, home library, or a buddy read.
Three and a half stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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