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    The Pig Did It
    The Pig Did It
    The Pig Did It
    Audiobook6 hours

    The Pig Did It

    Written by Joseph Caldwell

    Narrated by Chris Patton

    3/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    A pig escapes from its pen and roots up the garden of Kitty McCloud, a bestselling novelist who “corrects” the classics. What the obstreperous little pig unearths is evidence of a possible transgression that the novel's three Irish characters-the plagiarizing Kitty, her blood-feud rival Kieran, and a sexy swineherd named Lolly-are convinced the other has probably benefited from.How this hilarious mystery is resolved inspires both comic eloquence and a theatrically colorful canvas depicting the brooding Irish land and seascape.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHighbridge Company
    Release dateApr 5, 2011
    ISBN9781611744163
    The Pig Did It
    Author

    Joseph Caldwell

    Joseph Caldwell is an acclaimed playwright and novelist who has been awarded the Rome Prize for Literature by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is the author of five novels in addition to the Pig Trilogy, a humorous mystery series featuring a crime-solving pig. Caldwell lives in New York City and is currently working on various writing projects.

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    Reviews for The Pig Did It

    3/5

    119 ratings19 reviews

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    • 1/5
      Garbage. Pretentious. Neither funny nor charming. I only made a few chapters. Sad because I have been looking forward to reading this for ages.
    • 2/5
      I wanted a light, cozy mystery, preferably with a pig playing a fun role in it. I got a pretentious and boring story. The pig has very little to do with the story, but he (she? I don't remember) does dig up some bones. Some very unlikable people all accuse one another, all try to pass off the murder. The plot is ridiculous, the phrasing is pretentious. Passive voice is frequently used, and that can be very effective in some cases, but not in this one. This is the first book of a trilogy, but for me, it's the first and last book of that trilogy.
    • 3/5
      Professor Aaron McCloud, recently jilted in love, travels to the family home in Western Ireland to visit his aunt Kitty. He ends up stranded outside town with a pig following him down the road. This was a strange novel, not much about anything particularly. The writing was very good, but the narrative seemed endless at times. There were many flashes of humor but overall this book came off to me as a very literary farcical novel. The romantic resolutions at the end didn't seem realistic.
    • 2/5
      I did not enjoy this book very much. The protagonist was unlikable and some of the content was very adult and seemed out of place. I was listening to it with my little kids in the car, and I was glad they were too young to understand what was going on. This plot was quite silly and humorous at times, but it crossed over into the ridiculous the rest of the time. It took me a few years to finish this book. The narrator was a good one, but I think this book would have been much more pleasant if read quickly in paperback form. The style felt too verbose and slow moving for audio, painfully dwelling too long on all the awkward parts.
    • 1/5
      Those who think the Irish are quaint, charming, and endlessly entertaining will like this book. Everyone else should avoid it.
    • 4/5
      Absurd is the only word for this one. When Aaron McCloud returns to childhood haunts in Ireland to "grieve" over a lost love that never was, he finds himself adopted by a stray pig, which wreaks havoc on his Aunt's back garden and cabbage patch, digging up the bones of a poor murthered tinker in the process. Who did it? And what's to be done about it? And will Aaron ever actually find the time to walk alone along the beach and feel sorry for himself? Full of hilarious moments that beg to be filmed (I kept thinking of "Waking Ned Devine"), and purplish Irish prose...a delightful farce.
    • 3/5
      I requested this book through the LT Early Reviewers thinking from the description that I would enjoy it. While there is a murder in the book - it is not a murder mystery in the normal sense. There is no detection happening, just the main characters all blaming each other for the murder. While I normally enjoy audio books, I think I would have enjoyed the actual written book because at times it was hard to follow the story, and I kept wondering if I really heard what I thought I had just heard. I found the book just "OK" - I didn't hate it, but I certainly cannot rave about it either. I agree with many that most of the characters were very self-absorbed and thus difficult to like. I did enjoy the pig, but I kept wondering about it - was it supposed to symbolize something else, or was it really just a pig. Was this story about something metaphysical, or just a bit of humor that I didn't quite understand...
    • 4/5
      (This is a review for the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program)I’m still digesting my thoughts from this book. It’s not quite a traditional mystery, although there is a dead body involved.Aaron McCloud, an American of Irish descent, returns to Ireland to mourn the loss of a love that never was. On his way to his aunt’s house his bus is delayed by a herd of unruly pigs. Determined to help, Aaron tries to rescue one of the pigs. By the time he gets the pig under control, the bus has left him and he and the pig make their way to Aunt Kitty’s house. Not finished causing trouble, the pig unearths a skeleton in the garden. While there is some attempt to discover the killer, I wouldn’t say it’s the main focus of the story. It’s more a study of the characters, the Irish countryside, and Aaron’s failed attempts at mournful solitude. There’s a bit of the ridiculous throughout, with quirky characters and wordy rhapsodies. I had a hard time warming up to Aaron’s character; he’s rather a dope (which I’m hoping was intentional). I liked the Irish folk better.I felt the narrator did well with the story and the accents; I enjoyed listening to him.I didn’t realize this was the first in a trilogy. I haven’t decided yet if I want to continue with the next two books; I think I need to be in the right mood for them.
    • 5/5
      This was an absolutely great story. I not only loved the CD for the story but also the person that read the story did an absolutely wonderful job!! The story doesn't just involve a mystery put also it has a lot of humor! The author gave such depth to the characters. Wonderful to hear on audio CD. The pigs antics will have you laughing out loud many a time! Enjoy!!
    • 3/5
      Funny, if sometimes a bit heavy handed, farce written using Jane Austen's approach to complicated social situations. So just what does one do when the pig digs up a corpse in an Irish garden? The audio version is very easy to listen to.
    • 2/5
      Unfortunately, I would have to say that the photo on the case was my favorite thing about this book on CD. I love mysteries of all kinds, but this book just did not appeal to me. It almost felt as if the author was trying too hard to convince the reader of the authenticity of the Irish setting. At times, the plot moved very slowly (really, is an entire disc about a game of darts necessary?) and at other times, something major happened so quickly that I had to backtrack to catch it. It's possible that I would enjoy this work better reading it instead of listening to it, but I doubt I'll give it another chance.
    • 2/5
      Irish Blarney? Perhaps, but that's okay. Irish brogues for Irish characters? That's okay, too, except it would have bee nice had he been able to change his voice for the main charactes (and I probably wouldn't even have mentioned it had I enjoyed the book). Even the ending was okay...and even unexpected, actually, which was nice.But the main character was so thoughoughly unlikable, how could I like the vehicle that brought him to me? If you are interested in narsissism, here's your book! This may be a book better read in print.
    • 3/5
      In The Pig Did It, we follow an American, Aaron, as recovers from heartbreak in County Kerry, Ireland. Staying with his Aunt (who "corrects" the classics to be more to her liking), he soon finds himself in the company of a pig (an actual pig, by the way) who won't let him alone. When the pig finds a skeleton out back in the garden, the skeleton of a missing neighbor, Aaron's Aunt Kitty, neighbor Lolly (on whom Aaron has a growing attraction), and he play a round-about game of finding out who really killed the young man and why. I'm a big fan of audiobooks, which probably isn't a surprise to anyone who reads this thread. They're good for putzing around the house and they've saved me from getting any grey hairs while commuting. For this one however, I wasn't really a big fan. The first book in a trilogy, the events that would normally seem charming and entertaining to me instead seemed forced and made me antsy. I didn't much care for any of the people in the book, and what other reviewers mentioned as lilting language and hilarious farce seemed like a whole lot of nothing about nothing. There were times (many times, if I'm honest) when I felt like I could feel the author trying really really hard to use as many rubbish "Blarney" sayings as possible. It's a short book, and for that I was thankful. The narrator, Chris Patton, does a fine job - and by fine I mean "alright" not "outstanding-gee-golly-whiz" - covering both a few different Irish accents and an American one, but I just couldn't keep th him and what he was saying. He reminded me of Campbell Scott - nothing wrong with his voice, he's a popular narrator, but he's just not for me. All in all, I wasn't a fan of this book. I'm giving it a generous 3 stars, why I don't know, it should probably be closer to two. I think this is a book that you either love or loathe indifferently (if such a thing is possible). I received this book through the ER program.
    • 3/5
      This is a bizarre little book. Aaron has gone to Ireland to rid himself of a perceived failed love by visiting his aunt Kitty. On the way there, he attempts to rescue a pig that the owner, Lolly, evidently doesn't want. The pig creates many issues, the biggest being the digging up of a body in Kitty's garden. The rest of the book involves the way the 2 women and a local man, Sweeney, handle the situation. Perhaps this is supposed to be a commentary on the lives of those who live in western Ireland. There are lots of long speeches, but no one will take the blame for the murder until the end, when all three claim to have done it. There's a rather strange ending too. I think there are more books following this one, but I won't read them, nor will I recommend this one to anyone. It's just too strange for my tastes. I finished it and thought, "Why?"
    • 1/5
      I'm surprised to see that LT's recommendation feature thinks I will love this book, albeit with low certainy, because I certainly did not! While I'm sure the author found the protagonist's pretensions and incessant musing comic, I thought it was simply pathetic.And the ending was so convoluted I had to go back and read it twice -- did that REALLY just happen? Wait, did I really just read THAT? Well, I did but I shouldn't have. I won't be seeking out the sequel.
    • 4/5
      Aaron McCloud has been disappointed in love. Well, not exactly. But he thinks he should mourn the loss of a girl he never won anyway and he sets off to his aunt's house in Ireland, the place he spent his childhood summers, in order to best mope and sigh and grieve this quasi-love spurned. But before he can properly sink into the requisite melancholy, a farce breaks out with him and the pig who follows him to his aunt's house squarely at its center. Vowing to return the pig in the morning, he is greeted by the sight of total destruction, the pig having torn up his aunt's garden and shed. More troubling, the pig has uncovered a skeleton in the cabbages. Aunt Kitty knows who the murdered man is and she has a very convincing tale of who might be the murderer, naming Lolly, the woman to whom it is assumed the pig belongs. The plot thickens when Lolly disavows any knowledge of the pig and furthermore, points a convincing finger at Sweeney as murderer. When Sweeney is apprised of the conjecture, he, in turn, spins a tale that indicts Kitty. In the meantime, Declan Tovey's skeleton has been unearthed, brought into the house, and starts to cause all sorts of antics to ensue. And through none of this can Aaron muster up the oomph needed to properly suffer over the demise of a love affair that was only all in his head.While a short novel, there is a hog-load of Irish blarney here. In the grand story-telling tradition, each character has the opportunity to make his or her case for what really happened to Declan Tovey while poor Aaron and the reader are only certain of one thing: that the pig unearthed the skeleton. Aaron, as an American, despite his familial ties to Kitty, doesn't understand the resolve of the three suspects to not involve the police nor can he quite figure out who among them has done in Declan. Regardless of his confusion, he is thoroughly involved by the time possessing the skeleton of a murdered man becomes a comedy of errors. The monologues by the main characters are a bit long but when they lead to such hilarity as they do here, they are well worth the effort to read through. I think I spent as much time as Aaron did, completely baffled by the trio of other characters and I wondered how they were going to come to terms with each other and their unstated (or perhaps mentioned in a roundabout, sideways sort of way) desires. Watching Aaron try, unsuccessfully, to wallow in self-pity was highly entertaining. And the other characters were equally quirky and enchanting. Eccentric and offbeat, this comedy about love and life and a skeleton unearthed by a pig will probably have you scratching your head but ultimately wondering what the pig could possibly be up to in the second book.
    • 1/5
      Well, I didn't think it was very funny, in fact I started to get bored about half way through. I found myself skimming through to the end to see what happened, and was as disappointed with the end as with the rest of the book.
    • 5/5
      The Pig Did It by Joseph Caldwell is awesome! It is well crafted, compelling, and funny. It is simply yummy and I recommend it highly. I hope part two will be published soon!!
    • 2/5
      EnghOK, not greatInteresting tale told by Aaron McCloud - American relation of the Kerry McClouds who want time to pine over a (non) relationship goes to Ireland to visit his Aunt who is 2 yrs old than him. While there, a pig follows him home, and results ensure. Bring in the a few old wives tales, false love, a death of a local, etc etc.A little forced to be trite.