The Sound and the Furry

Book number six in the Chet & Bernie mystery series takes our intrepid duo East to the Louisiana bayous to search for a missing man, the law-abiding brother of a convict known to Bernie. It’s a whole different world of sounds, sights and smells for Chet, especially that odd sort-of-peppery-snake smell.

I just love this series. Chet (the dog who failed obedience training; a cat was involved) narrates the adventures that he and his human, Bernie (the smartest man in the room), have when they take on various cases as part of their business, the Little Detective Agency.
Chet is easily distracted by smells that humans don’t even notice, and he doesn’t quite grasp idioms or metaphors (still haven’t caught scent or sight of that wild show more goose they are frequently chasing), but he is fiercely loyal to Bernie and knows how to stop a perp!

Quinn gives us a fast-paced book, with sprinkles of humor to lessen the tension.

I usually listen to the audios, which are masterfully performed by Jim Frangionne. But this time I chose to read the text. I missed Frangionne’s voice but could still “hear” it in my head as I read. show less

Chet and Bernie do Louisiana in this installment of their series. It's a missing person case involving one Ralph Boutette. An environmental catastrophe is also involved as is Chet's first, and hopefully only, encounter with an alligator. Who cares about the plot??? What so fascinates me about Quinn's books is the way he writes Chet's voice. The author has mastered dog-think. For any dog lovers in the universe, Chet & Bernie are not to be missed. I chuckled all of the way through this one. Quinn has it nailed. I still wish I had thought to write them first.

I love all of the Chet & Bernie books—they’re well-written, Chet (the dog) stays in character and doesn’t do/think anything I can’t imagine a dog doing or thinking. I especially enjoy Quinn’s dramatic use of the dog’s short attention span, the lag between the dog’s actions and the dog’s realization of his action, and the description of a situation that the dog doesn’t understand but the reader does.

This book was a little darker than most, with a few heart-stopping moments for me, but I knew it wasn't going to be too horrible because of the “Cozy” genre of this series.

Don’t expect great literature but it’s a fun, easy read and a reminder of the simple pleasures of living in the moment. I received a free copy of show more this book from NetGalley in return for an honest review. show less

Bernie Little and Chet are, in some respects, a traditional detective and amanuensis: the sidekick is a little dumb, but lovable and a good narrator, and the detective mostly uses him as a sounding board, occasionally holding back clues turn out to be vital. One major difference, though–our narrator is Chet the K9 unit dropout, who provides all the laughs, most of the heart, and a decent amount of the action. From his short attention span to his ridiculously high spirits, he’s a quintessential dog, and that’s really the best part about this series. The mysteries are okay–not excessively fair, but not off-the-wall–the minor characters are often colorful, and there’s a little bit of romantic and otherwise backstory running show more through. But there’s really no reason why I’d bother reading the series so faithfully if it weren’t for Chet’s narration.

Thus far, the series has confined itself geographically to the Southwest, and there has been a persistent sub-theme devoted to the environment and its water crises. Now, as the Little Detective Agency travels to Louisiana, the environmental hazard in question is oil drilling–which is, in my mind, something of a spoiler, though apparently the copy writer didn’t think so.

On the negative side, some of the minor characters–especially the female ones–seem even more cliched than usual. Off the top of my head, there are really only three and can be described as “distant but jealous girlfriend,” “mysterious nymphomaniac,” and “canny, oddball Southern old lady.” I can’t say the mystery was all that subtle, either: I knew who the villain was the first time he appeared. But really, I didn’t mind any of this all that much, since I read them to listen to Chet’s impressions of life, and so read the novel in one afternoon. All’s well that ends well.

(More rambling on this topic found here.) show less

A quick, entertaining, clever read. This is the first by this author and featuring Chet, the dog. I really like so much of the story being from the dog's perspective and, as much as it can, it seems a reasonable assumption about how a dog's mind might work. The mystery to solve seems almost incidental to Chet's musings.

I particularly like the way Chet keys in on weird human phrases and tries to make sense of them in his simplified understanding.... "let your hair down" leads him down the path of what he should do with his hair; "two peas in a pod" causes him to remember eating peas once and how they stick to his teeth, etc. It's a clever tool but almost a little overdone. I wouldn't want to read these books back to back, but when I show more want something light and and humorous, I'll pick up another. (read to complete a category in the 2015 Reading Challenge -animal as main character) show less

Yay, another Chet and Bernie book!

Except... someone this one didn't charm me quite as much, at first. Chet seemed even more oblivious than usual, and he didn't "bring other skills to the table" as much. Eventually I warmed up to this one, though, and ended up enjoying it.

This is the sixth entry in the “Little Detective Agency” series and once again Bernie (the human) and Chet (the narrating dog) are on a case; this time to solve a kidnapping in the Bayous of New Orleans. Bernie is hired by the wife of man he put behind bars (or as Chet would put it … “Breaking some rocks in the hot sun”) to find out what happened to her brother-in-law. Ralph is the only law abiding member of the Boutette family and after a shrimp heist all indications are that the long running feud between the Boutettes and the Robideaus has flared up again with Ralph caught in the middle. Soon enough the plot thickens as a Mexican drug gang, a shady FBI agent, and a new oilrig come into the picture. Yep, Bernie and Chet are show more on the case.

I began reading this series on the recommendation of a friend and continued reading it because I love Chet. His narration is simple and funny and sometimes all over the place, he drops little teasers but can’t seem to finish his thought (cut him some slack, after all he is an easily distracted dog) but he gets the story told. If you are a fan of light mysteries that contain humor, interesting characters, enough action to keep it interesting and a dog, give this series a try. show less