MADreads

Good dog!

February 22nd, 2009 Dennis - Central

While I’m not a dog owner, I am something of a closeted dog lover, so when I saw there was a new mystery featuring a dog and his (human) private investigator partner, I was tempted.  And, luckily for me, I gave in to temptation.

Dog on It : A Chet and Bernie Mystery by first time novelist Spencer Quinn is what tempted me.  Bernie Little runs the Little Detective Agency and Chet, a less than purebred dog, is his sole partner.  Bernie’s an ex-cop, ex-husband, part-time father, trying-to-quit smoker, and not a particularly good businessman.  So rather than waiting for the missing persons cases that he prefers, he’s reduced to taking on the occasional divorce investigation.  Chet (not Chester) is his canine partner of unknown ancestry who failed his final field trial at the police K-9 Academy.  Something about a cat wandering onto the course during the final exam.  (But he was the best leaper in his class!)

Part of the charm of this particular book is that Chet is narrating the story.  We see the world from his point of view (he usually rides in the shotgun seat while Bernie drives) and let me tell you, this is one live-in-the-moment canine.  He gets excited about practically anything.  Including the occasional found treat which leaves him feeling kind of “pukey.”  Chet’s happiness fairly leaps off the page.  This was the kind of book that kept me grinning when I wasn’t laughing out loud.

The main story revolves around a missing teenage girl and Bernie’s dogged (couldn’t resist) investigation despite the hostility of the girl’s part-time father.  There’s quite a bit of action, including Americanized Russian gangsters, a bar fight with some bikers, a run-in with a low-life drug dealer, two kidnappings and even a dog-napping.  Whew! And through it all, Chet manages to keep his nose to the ground in his efforts to help Bernie– when Bernie isn’t awkwardly trying to woo a newspaper reporter who shows up to do a feature story on him, then keeps showing up to save the day.  I think Chet’s only shortcoming (aside from the language barrier, of course) is his problem with short-term memory.  Often it’s comic relief but it also adds to the tension in the situations when Bernie talks out loud to Chet about the case and Chet just can’t remember something that was important– not that he could communicate it anyway.  Chet just knows the case doesn’t close until he has the perp’s pants cuff held firmly in his teeth.

It’s a truly fun and satisfying partnership, from a delightfully different perspective.  And with plenty of hints dropped throughout the story about their past that will surely be explored in future adventures I’m looking forward to more.

Also available as an audiobook.

Entry Filed under: Mystery, Recreational Fiction