Joseph Caldwell, The Pig Did It

The Pig Did It

Joseph Caldwell

Delphinium, Jan 2008, $22.95

ISBN 9781883285296

After another failed love, thirty-two years old creative writing teacher Aaron McCloud escapes New York to spend time with his Aunt Kitty in County Kerry, Ireland. Kitty like her nephew is a writer, but instead of instructing others she earns a lucrative living rewriting the classics. Aaron figures that the great English authors like Shakespeare and Dickens are turning in their grave.

Although he feels like a failure with his female relationships, Aaron finds a lost pig that adopts him; wherever Aaron goes the pig is sure to follow him. When the pig digging in the back yard uncovers a human skeleton, Kitty says he is the missing Declan Tovey. She believes the pig's owner, Lolly McKeever is behind the death and burial, but she won't admit even owning the pig. Although he learns Lolly had a motive for Declan's death, Aaron is attracted to her while also wonders if his aunt, who butchers the language, might be a modern day Lady Macbeth.

The western Irish countryside is rarely this much macabre fun as found in THE PIG DID IT, a terrific character study. Joseph Caldwell satirizes manners using the pig and the corpse to force everyone to wrestle in the mud, dirt and sea. The whodunit is cleverly designed not as much as a murder mystery, but more to allow readers to look deep into the souls of the prime trio especially the visiting American, who must choose between desire and blood.

Harriet Klausner