This is a novel and a series that I came across by accident, when recently perusing Oxfam’s online shop for books. The premise appealed to me as it is a mystery series populated with anthropomorphic animals who live in furniture-filled dwellings, run human-like shops and businesses, and have healthcare and justice systems. There are currently 5 novels in the series and 2 novellas (marked with an asterisk below):
- Shady Hollow (2015)
- Cold Clay (2017)
- Evergreen Chase (2021)*
- Mirror Lake (2022)
- Phantom Pond (2023)*
- Twilight Falls (2023)
- Summers End (2024)
Juneau Black is the penname for American authors Jocelyn Cole and Sharon Nagel.
Synopsis
‘The first book in the Shady Hollow series, in which we are introduced to the village of Shady Hollow, a place where woodland creatures live together in harmony—until a curmudgeonly toad turns up dead and the local reporter has to solve the case. Reporter Vera Vixen is a relative newcomer to Shady Hollow. The fox has a nose for news, so when she catches wind that the death might be a murder, she resolves to get to the bottom of the case, no matter where it leads. As she stirs up still waters, the fox exposes more than one mystery, and discovers that additional lives are in jeopardy. Vera finds more to this town than she ever suspected. It seems someone in the Hollow will do anything to keep her from solving the murder, and soon it will take all of Vera’s cunning and quickness to crack the case.’
Overall Thoughts
Before discussing the book, I thought I would share the joke my husband gave when late one night I was telling him about the story when I was part way through it. He commented: “It should be easy for the detective to spot the criminal – the killer is the person who parked on double yellow lines.” And yes, I was daft enough to ask how he reached this conclusion, to which he replied: “Because they got toad.” If you need to let out a groan at this point, at the awfulness of the joke, then do feel free to do so before proceeding with the rest of this review.
In keeping with traditional mysteries this novel begins with a map of Shady Hollow and a cast of characters; both of which were very useful. I liked the little description each character gets. In some cases, this description foreshadows potential guilt such as in Gladys Honeysuckle’s: ‘As the town gossip and busybody, there’s nothing Gladys doesn’t know. She was the one to find the body and sound the alarm. But perhaps she already knew where to look…’ Other character descriptions offer a nod to detective fiction genre such as Lenore Lee’s: ‘A dark-as-night raven who opened the town’s bookshop, Nevermore Books, and has a penchant for mysteries. If anyone is an expert on murder, it’s Lenore.’ Humour is also woven into some of the others. A personal favourite is the description attached to Deputy Orville Braun: ‘This large brown bear is the harder-working half of the Shady Hollow constabulary. He works by the book, but his book has half the pages ripped out.’
Despite not being the sharpest tool in the shed, Orville is still conscientious and positively contributes to the plot. It is also through him that we most keenly observe the tension within these characters, being both anthropomorphised yet not truly domesticated. There is still a wild and potentially violent side to them. For example, during one conversation between Vera and Orville they say:
‘“Never mind. I know you don’t see the inside of a courtroom that often in Shady Hollow.”
“Nope.” Orville grinned, showing huge teeth. “Most creatures confess right away.”
“I bet,” Vera breathed. Orville could be very intimidating when he wanted to be.’
It makes you feel like maybe they’re not fully knowable or predictable and as such, at the start of the novel at least, you’re not sure how much you trust characters such as Orville Braun. The wild nature of the characters also comes through in their interactions with one another such as when Vera and Orville fall out when she gets his back up with an insensitive news report, implying incompetency on his part. I like how the writers make you consider how animal behaviours would still occur within and influence this society, in activities such as policing. In addition, traits linked to specific breeds, such as having large litters of babies, are incorporated into the social fabric of the story. For example, there is a mouse accountant called Howard Chitters and it is said of him and his wife that they ‘had five small litters already, and he could tell you the exact number of children too, if you gave him a moment to remember.’
The prologue begins with the geography of the ‘small village called Shady Hollow’. It sounds positively Wind-in-the-Willows like in the way the seasons and the river are described, as well the mentioning of skating parties. However, a page later Shady Hollow is described rather differently: ‘The Von Beaverpelt Sawmill is in many ways the heart of the town. The massive wooden waterwheel cranks all day and night, and an eternal cloud of sawdust hovers in the air […] A bustling business, the mill supplies a livelihood for many creatures…’ Throughout the story the labels ‘village’ and ‘town’ are used interchangeably, which initially rather disconcerted me, as in the UK they are not the same thing. However, I wonder if this is an American linguistic difference – Do such words mean something similar in the USA? Looking at the map illustration and based on the amount of infrastructure Shady Hollow has, I would say for UK readers that it is a small town. It is far too big a settlement to be classed as a village, by British standards anyways. Yet it perhaps does not have the anonymity you might expect with a town:
‘Other things happen, of course. There is love and hate, deceit and betrayal. There is loyalty and disappointment, heroism and villainy, all of a small order. But these things are, for the most part, private, and secret. They take place behind closed doors or underground in dens, or among branches that shade the town so well. You do not see them aired in the peaceful world of Shady Hollow. But very soon you will.’
Regardless of this confusion over villages and towns, the fictional world of this story grabbed me, and the characters are key in this. Furthermore, I felt the writers set up their world quickly and convincingly, which is important given the unusual nature of the setting and characters. I also appreciated how this novel does not feel the need to justify having anthropomorphic animals (or overexplaining how things work). The narrative just runs with it like a children’s book would do, which is a positive.
The authors dive straight into the story with Gladys Honeysuckle discovering the toad Otto Sumpf belly up in his pond. It will later be discovered that he has a knife in his back, yet also that it was poison that really killed him (which added pleasing complexity to the case). Nevertheless, Gladys’ priority is to head to her newspaper job, aware of the scoop potential. Vera Vixen takes over this angle and she is introduced as very work focused and almost cold in some ways. But the reader is not alienated by this, and she is still shocked when she realises it is murder and she is also kind to her distressed co-worker.
Otto was a hermit-like and argumentative creature, so possible motives for his death emerge easily, as Vera moves into interviewing Shady Hollow’s inhabitants. Orville arrests the nearest thing Shady Hollow has to a career criminal, due to some paw marks at the crime scene, and the reader puzzles over whether it might be a frame up. Deputy Orville is initially dismissive of Vera Vixen, but this just encourages her to keep digging into the mystery and I liked how she teams up with Lenore, who is able to aid Vera’s investigation in several ways. The fact it is two friends working together made a refreshing change, as romance is not allowed to derail the plot, nor do we have a male character muscling the female sleuth out of the way. Lenore, due to being able to fly, can retrieve hard to reach evidence. Furthermore, she reads detective stories to find out more about investigative procedure. Based on the notes she makes; it is implied that she is reading Sherlock Holmes short stories:
‘So far, she had written down a few key things:
- Capital mistake to theorise before one has data. Gather data, then see what theory fits.
- Eliminate impossible. Whatever is left (however improbable) MUST BE TRUTH.
- Reichenbach Falls = bad spot for getaway vacation.’
The last bullet point is an example of the way little notes of humour are woven into this story contains.
Like other mysteries which are centred on a particular community, murder makes the inhabitants of Shady Hollow wary of one another. This leads to some instances of othering, where characters are more distrustful of those who are from a different species to their own. There is one instance where this anxiety-fuelled prejudice is focused on Sun Li, a panada. Based on an object found at the scene, which is connected to Li’s business, suspicion shifts to him:
“Otto made an enemy of everybody,” said another. “And who knows what sets off a panda?”
A squirrel said, “I heard he killed another panda with his bare paws!” […] I think we were better off before he showed up!”’
This tension does not overrun the plot, and later events in the book reveal more about Sun Li and the strengths he possesses.
Vera and Lenore discuss the way the murder changes how the inhabitants start treating and thinking about each other:
“Murder’s a funny thing. All the assumptions we make about our neighbours go out the window. Most of the time we don’t care at all whether someone can account for their whereabouts at a certain hour. But then a murder happens, and suddenly the most respected members of society are no better off than the dregs.”
Vera sighed. “That’s a cynical take.”
“I’m a raven.” Lenore shrugged. “If you want sunshine and melodies, go find a swallow.”
Yes, I did just quote this passage, because I love the last line!
Further murder attempts make this a more intricate case, as the reader and the characters must figure out how some of the jarring pieces of the puzzle actually fit together. The final solution is a pleasing one, as to discover the truth you need to look at events from a different angle and shift your focus. I found the solution unexpected but not dissatisfying. Vera is not an infallible sleuth, and she is not always one step ahead of the police. At times she is on the back foot, or paw rather, when it comes to new pieces of information. But she is quick to adapt, and she is mostly sensible in her sleuthing exploits, remembering to tell someone where she is going and even on occasion taking someone else with her, on dubious meet ups. It is hard to fault this mystery but upon reflection I think perhaps some plot action tropes were repeated a little too much.
All in all, I found this to be an exciting mystery and I really enjoyed how the characters interacted with one another. Shady Hollow was a world I enjoyed inhabiting. So much so that immediately after I finished the book I went and bought the next two books in the series. Can there be a higher recommendation than that?
Rating: 4.75/5