Fifty-Four Pigs

Tired of mysteries set in Paris and Los Angeles, southern Italy and Glasgow? Then head to rural Manitoba in the depth of winter for a meet-up with Dr. Peter Bannerman, veterinarian extraordinaire. We join Peter as he is off to make a house call, when he notices smoke in the distance and realizes it’s coming from his buddy Tom’s pig farm. He arrives too late to save the pigs, while Tom is nowhere to be found. An eccentric, introverted geek, Peter loves nothing more than spending a quiet evening with his equally geeked-out wife Laura, as she knits Star Wars-themed sweaters to sell on Etsy. But Peter has a secret side: a fascination for solving crimes, putting his highly logical mind to good use. Yet as another murder and more crimes follow, Peter finds himself in a place where his reasoning skills can no longer save him, and his judgement of others turns out to be terribly flawed. This book takes a risk with a large amount of backstory—about Peter’s life and the history of the town—but it works because both are so compelling and it is clear that Schott is setting us up for what could be a most satisfying series. Bring on book two!