Thank you ECW Press for sending me an advance reader copy of this novel.
I've had mixed results with ARCs in the past, so I was both excited and apprehensive to receive this mystery from a small Canadian press. From the first page, I was hooked.
Now the publicist that contacted me had no way to know that I grew up on a hog farm on the Canadian prairies. Just knowing that a pig barn is the place where the plot begins was exciting to me. (Other people may find that their mileage varies on this issue). It also helped that I've always been interested in Iceland and the Icelandic community in Manitoba.
This is a cozy mystery, with plenty of tea drinking and dog walking. Our main character, Dr. Peter Bannerman, is a veterinarian with a mixed practice of pets and farm animals. He's kind of an inflexible guy, keeping an extremely regular schedule, with definite rational beliefs, and he's a bit clued out about regular irrational human behaviour. This gets him into trouble sometimes when he misinterprets the folks around him. Despite the cozy label, there are serious crimes committed and Peter admits to being curious as a cat. This gets him in hot water with his brother-in-law, an RCMP officer. Not to mention his wife.
I quite enjoyed this mystery, despite the fact that the pigs don't feature as much as I'd hoped, judging by the title. The author himself is a vet and he has written nonfiction books about his profession. If I wasn't already snowed under with a huge TBR, I would request one of these from our public library. There's a second mystery in the works (Six Ostriches) and I'll be keeping an eye out for it.
This book will be available on April 19, 2022.
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| My dad feeding the sows on our family farm |
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