The Great Poplar Mystery

By Giovanni Volpi

The Po Valley, Italy: Tappo, a chipper little dog, lives on an old farm. He feels like a real boss guarding the area between the courtyard and the great poplar at the end of the fields. He doesn’t have any real friends, but a few good relationships like those with the wonderful cat, Lucy and the owl, Rosina, together with the hens and the other dogs that live on the farm. However, Tappo also has some enemies, like the river rats and unwelcome cats.
Nevertheless, life carries on quite well until one day some frightening news arrives that turns everything around and threatens the future of the farm animals. Then like the shocks in a thriller, a succession of dramatic turn of events takes place and Tappo becomes a detective in this strange situation where nothing is as it seems. In order to discover who is moving in the shadows and to save everyone, he is faced with making a decision that will change his whole life and his opinion of the other animals. But will it be the right choice? 

Giovanni Volpi is an Italian journalist who lives with his family in the countryside and loves stories about animals, like “Watership Down”, “The Incredible Journey” and “Animal Farm”. The detective story “The Great Poplar Mystery” is his first novel.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fox
• Release date: Jul 4, 2018
• ISBN: 9788828348399

Book preview

A Novel by Giovanni Volpi

To my Father, who loved animals

Translation by Anne Starr

Cover and Illustrations by

Davide Volpi

© COPYRIGHT 2013 GIOVANNI VOLPI/DAVIDE VOLPI ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

What a run! I’m out of breath! They have just set me free and I really needed a good frolic. I didn’t even see those stupid hens as I ran amongst them and poof!!! Such a lot of clucking and fluttering of feathers. I wouldn’t mind a nice egg though, so I’ll go and make peace with them later. I’ll have a look in the hen house and if they have laid any in the lower nesting boxes, maybe I can manage to get one, but very quietly and stealthily, so that my mistress doesn’t find out.

If you haven’t understood by now, I’m a little dog. My name is Tappo. I’m black and white and I live on an old farmstead. At night I have to guard the garden, but during the day I’m free to roam around the courtyard, which is great fun. It’s not as though there is nothing to do, on the contrary. If a stranger arrives, I bark as much as I can to warn whoever is at home. Other than that, I have all the time I need to take care of my duties and I can assure you there are lots of challenging activities around the place.

Where shall I start? Well, I’d say with that troupe of felines that I have to keep under control, otherwise they create one disaster after another. And my mistress, who dotes on them, always ends up blaming me. It’s been like that for a couple of years now. Until then the courtyard was quite peaceful. Together with old Rocky, a big dog who’s five times my size (my name means cork so I guess it’s quite obvious that I’m small), it was our job to make sure there were no undesirable characters around, like those rats from the river who try to make their home in the old cow barn in autumn, or like those cocky hares who, as soon as you turn your head, come to eat their way through the vegetable garden. Sometimes a stray dog would wander into the courtyard to try and steal something; but all things considered, apart from these problems of ordinary administration for someone with my responsibilities, life ran quite smoothly, until recently.

But then that multicoloured, striped kitten with big green eyes, who they called Lucy, arrived. She’s quite nice, I’d really like a little dog friend like her, but since she came to stay, everything has changed. It’s a torment to be on guard at night with all the coming and going of the cats that come to visit her. Talk about sleeping with one eye open! Actually, I only have one, so the situation has become quite complicated. And old Rocky, who is almost totally deaf, has never been any help to anyone. And even less help are Shadow and Scout, the two dogs who are always on guard in the garden. Shadow is Scout’s mother and she does everything; she barks when needed and chases away any intruders who try to come into the garden. With all the magpies, doves, mice and hedgehogs, she has a lot to do. Scout spends his time lazing around, a real slacker. Apart from that, he’s become such a wimp: as soon as something happens, he hides behind his mother’s tail. It’s very funny considering how big he is.

I’ve told Shadow lots of times, If Scout goes on like this; he’ll become a real disaster. But she defends him: Come on Tappo, be patient, he’s still a puppy, he’ll improve as he grows.

Oh sure, he’ll improve, he’ll improve alright. For the moment, the only things he knows how to do are wag his tail and fill his stomach when our meal arrives. Just let our owners find out and then we’ll see how the music changes!

But let’s forget about Scout and go back to Lucy, or Lucinda as my owners sometimes call her. Right after her arrival, Pitch-black, the boss-cat of the quarter on the outskirts of the city, started showing up every evening, fighting anyone who tried to get near her and trying to convince her to leave with him.

But Lucy wasn’t interested. I’m happy here, she’d answer, closing her eyes and lifting her beautiful tail. I like this place and I like my mistress too.

He couldn’t exactly put his paws on her and drag her away, but it was clear that he had a crush on her. So Pitch-black, the stinker, changed tactic and started coming into the courtyard during the day as well. What a nuisance. Lucy, on the other hand, felt important getting all that attention; she was happy. Pitch-black had always been bossy; he only needed to see a juicy morsel to forget all about good manners, if, in fact he had ever had any. However, I must say that he was very polite to her. He always let her have first choice; even though it was obvious from a mile off that it was difficult for him. Sometimes Lucy gave in and accompanied him on a hunt or a walk around the town. But she always came home and then received a telling off from the mistress, who had been worried about her absence. Meanwhile, she grew and became a beautiful cat.

If things had continued like that, life wouldn’t have been at all bad. A few extra growls to keep Pitch-black out of the courtyard were no big deal. But things got worse. And not only because there were always more new contenders for Lucy brawling with Pitch-black at night, creating so much intolerable noise and confusion.