A review by phwoarker
The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon

4.0

This is a lovely, warm, funny book that kept me smiling all the way through.

Set in the famous heatwave of 1976, the story follows a small community in the East Midlands as they come to terms with the disappearance of one of their friends and neighbours Margaret Creasy. While the novel offers perspectives from everyone on the little street, the main narrator is 10-year-old Grace Bennett who, along with her best friend Tilly, is determined to solve the mystery of Mrs Creasy’s disappearance.

There were many wonderful things about it:

- Grace and Tilly are a delight. They’re funny, clever and naive all at the same time and their friendship is completely believable.

- It’s very evocative of a specific time and place. For a first time author, Cannon has done an amazing job of building up a detailed picture of a small community in the 1970s (although, admittedly, I wasn’t alive in the 70s so I can’t say for sure. But it certainly felt authentic). From the small-minded yet close-knit community, to the terrible TV and food and

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the oblivious racism

, the world was very realistic and absorbing.

- Some parts had me laughing out loud

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Most notably the scene where the Kapoors come to visit the Bennett’s and Derek’s misplaced attempts at bonding. Cringe-inducing and hilarious

- The pacing was very fast, with the plot moving along at a decent clip.

- It’s set in the East Midlands! Ie, near Nottingham (my home town)! Admittedly not something that will appeal to everyone, but the East Midlands is unfairly under-represented in literature IMHO :)

Having said all this, it missed out on a 5-star rating from me for a couple of reasons:

- Some of the dialogue between the adults was a bit unrealistic. While the childish outlook of Grace and Tilly and their sweet and naive conversations were expertly rendered, the conversations between the adults were sometimes a bit stilted. In some cases things are clearly omitted to further the plot, which is fine, but the way that they spoke wasn’t hugely believable. For example

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when Harold, Brian and Sheila are all in the pub discussing Margaret’s disappearance the conversation sounded to me a little unnatural, and when the police finish their recording for the news and ‘everyone starts shouting at once’, I just didn’t quite buy it.

- The ending wasn’t as satisfying as I was hoping

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I think ambiguous endings are fine for some books, but for a novel which is so clearly plot-driven and where each clue has been painstakingly laid out, I wanted the pay-off to be a little easier to access. I assume that the conclusion is that Dorothy set the fire? Something about the folded teatowels in the kitchen that Harold saw after the fire? But what was the little nod-wink between the police officers about after they’d recorded their TV message? Has Margaret Creasy already told them about the fire and they were just trying to get a confession? Who did Brian and May see sneaking around Walter’s house before the fire? What happened after Margaret got back?

- I found the overall plot and especially the

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religious

themes a little bit trite, but that might just be me.

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Obviously Mrs Creasy with the way she listened to and understood everyone’s problems (prayers) was meant to be God/Jesus, which is a nice idea but doesn’t work for me as an atheist. I was interested to read that Cannon is a psychiatrist. Obviously Mrs Creasy’s superpower is non-judgmental listening, but I would have liked this to be emphasised a little bit more over the religious aspects. But, as I say, that’s completely subjective. I really liked the exploration of exclusion of the ‘other’ (Walter) and vigilante attitudes in small communities. Proof that people were tried and convicted by public opinion way before social media came along.

I can see this being a very popular read this year and for good reason. I’d recommend it as a fun and compelling holiday read.

(With thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review)