I was reading a review

Was it a review of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time? When I read that book, I also glossed "garden fork" as "pitchfork".

In that book a small dog is killed with a "garden fork", and as I read I wondered what a garden fork was. The first thing I thought of was the smaller implement (which is apparently correct), but...

[!!!Warning, Spoilers for TCIotDitNT Ahead!!!]

later in the book, it is revealed that the dog is killed impulsively, in a moment of rage, and I figured that the character must have just grabbed the handle of a pitchfork and stabbed down with it. This seemed to me to be more likely than his grabbing a small hand tool, and bending down to intentionally stab the small dog.

It's a small point, but it actually affects my interpretation of the act and the character that did it. It seems somehow more evil to do the deed with a hand tool, at "point-blank range", as it were. Hmm.