Dog on It

While it's not one of the new books I need to be finishing (getting there!!), Dog on It was insanely enjoyable and I don't, for a second, regret diverting my attention to it. Told in the first person - er, canine - by Chet, a police K-9 school almost graduate and current partner to Bernie a private investigator, Dog on It is likely unlike anything you've ever read before.

He may be a dog, but he's also, most definitely a detective and as Bernie and Chet investigate the disappearance - and maybe kidnapping - of a teenage girl more and more trouble, and bad characters find them. Chet may not understand everything Bernie worries about (his divorce, custody of his son, money - cash flow specifically) but he certainly proves all the sayings show more about the loyalty of dogs.

As they investigate we learn more about their personal lives - and Chet's taste in treats - and their past, specifically just what may have caused Chet to become a police school flunk out.

Insanely fun but also so, so good, you'll have trouble putting it down for anything. You'll also be sorry when it's over (despite a fantastic ending), but don't worry because it's just the first in a series with three more already out and the fifth in the series releasing in September.

Telling things from the dog's point-of-view is a great way to do things. It allows author Spencer Quinn to take certain liberties with the story: Chet zones out on parts of conversations that he finds boring, forgets certain parts of past events, tries to remember things but they tend to remind him of a bone he buried somewhere, or he just decides to take a nap. It's a great way to give readers a first person account of the story without giving us the whole story - or it seeming strange that we only get half conversations or stories.

It also allows for some fantastic humor: (After a mom tells her kid how he yawned means Chet's aggressive) "First of all, I wasn't yawning, only stretching my mouth, always nice and relaxing. Second, I wasn't feeling aggressive: She must have been confusing me with hippos, ugly brutes I'd seen on the Discovery Channel and wanted no part of..." (pg 45.)

Not only do I love, love Chet and find little bits of my different dogs in him, I also love that the mystery of Dog on It is strong as well. It doesn't take a backseat to being a cutesy dog book (nor, really, is it a cutesy dog book, I'm pretty sure Chet would find that insulting).

I'm beyond excited to read more in this series and hope we continue to get more about Bernie and see his character develop as well - I love seeing him through Chet's eyes.

If you love mysteries, love dogs at all (or can even put up with them), this is a book for you.

Rating: 9/10 show less

"Do On It" was original, funny and an absolute must-read for dog lovers.

Told entirely from the point of view of Chet, a large, mixed-breed dog with mismatched ears, who, for reasons we never quite get to, didn't make it all the way through his police dog training but who is now partnered with Bernie, a large, divorced, ex-cop, ancient-Porsche-driving PI.

The story is wrapped around the investigation of the apparent abduction of a teenage girl who is missing but for whom there has been no ransom request.

Bernie knows that something is wrong and is determined to find out what. Chet is right there with him. Bernie does the thinking part and Chet does the grab-the-trouser-leg-and-don't-let-go part.

Seeing the world through Chet's eyes is what show more makes this book special. Spencer Quinn clearly knows dogs. He captures that ability for sudden, irresistible urges to chase or smell that can distract even the most focused dog. He lets us see how concentration fades in and out, how some memories slip away yet certain smells or sounds become embedded in the psyche. He shows how aggressive growls and stances can happen even before a dog knows he's reacting to something and he captures a dog's irrepressible optimism.

Chet's vocabulary is limited but he is a natural raconteur. He starts many tales that he doesn't finish, comes back to tales he's told before and punctuates many stories with: "We, Bernie and me...". He finds humans, even Bernie, limited in strange ways but still often worthy of love and devotion.

At one point, Chet and Bernie become separated and Chet's life is in danger. He is not truly conscious of this until the very last minute, yet I found the whole thing almost unbearably tense. I couldn't have borne an "Old Yeller" moment.

Bernie's character emerges strongly as the book progresses, giving me a kind of double-exposure view - once as Chet sees him: the human with the second-best smell in the world, who can make things happen, solve puzzles and silence whole rooms of people, even if he does have a strange obsession about water - and once as the ex-cop now struggling PI that the rest of us might see.

I also enjoyed the relationship between Chet and his best canine friend and close neighbour, Iggy. It's very much a dog thing, characterised by exchanges like:

"Iggy barked. I barked back. He barked. I barked. He barked. I barked. He barked. I barked. Bernie said, "Chet! Stop that." I tried to stop."

In the first hour or so of this book, I wasn't really won over, but I stuck with it and was soon carried along by characters that I cared about (some of them even human) and a plot that was just twisty enough and tense enough to keep me wanting to know what happened next.

This is the start of a series of Chet and Bernie books. I'll be back for more. show less

Kearsten says: A charming narrator, Chet the dog adores his owner, former cop turned private investigator, Bernie Little. Hired by a mother to find her missing teenage daughter, the Little Detective Agency (just Chet and Bernie) have only just begun digging when the daughter shows up, just fine. Bernie continues digging, as the girl's story doesn't quite add up, which ends up being a good thing, as the girl soon goes missing a second time.

Bernie is one of those beaten down detectives - he and his wife are divorced, making visits with his young son, Charlie, bracketed by tension, as Bernie's ex-wife is combative as best. He's beset with bills, unsteady clientele and a Porsche that's on its last legs. But it's the unwavering devotion show more Chet has to Bernie that makes Bernie shine. Seeing this sad man thru his dog's eyes is refreshing and sweet, and Chet is a bit of a super dog - smart, fierce, goofy, and in love with his role as a member of the detective agency. A funny, quirky book - I recommend it and also look forward to the next in the series!

***SPOILER!!!*** (it's a minor spoiler)

For dog lovers: there is a sad scene in an animal shelter, in which a couple of dogs (they are not pivotal to story) that 'disappear'. Chet has a suspicion about what happens to them, but never quite has it confirmed. Chet does survive. show less

Chet and Bernie. Say it with me, now. Chet and Bernie. Get used to saying it, because once you read this book, you'll be saying it a lot to others who haven't read it yet.

Chet's a dog. Bernie's a schlub. They're a team, crime solving magic of a team. In a mystery world dominated by cat cozies, they're very unusual and very much a pair of guys. This makes them a breath of fresh air at the least, and a cold Alberta Clipper to blow the cobwebs full of cat-dander out of the bookstores. Come back to the fold, gentlemen, there's a voice a lot like the one in your head all ready to talk to you, and it's a dog's!

It's wonderful to read something that's got a new slant on an established trope (read: hoary old cliche), and slants it well enough to show more keep a cynical old sourpuss like me leaning forward in his seat, eager to see what Chet's going to do next, what Bernie's brain's going to wrest from its depths to help the innocent and land on the wicked with all six feet (four Chet's). LT member cameling gets all the credit for shoving this book into my awareness. Bless you, dear madam.

Oh yeah...the schlub gets the girl, too. The right girl. Never mind that she's a vegetarian...who among us is without major character flaws?...she loves Chet.

Fetch! Sit! Read! show less

Chet and Bernie are your traditional down-at-heel detective and side-kick team. Chet is the narrator - and his view of things is, to say the least, unusual - because he is a dog. A K9 police training school dropout, sure, but still a dog.

Chet has the hard-boiled nerve, the observational skills, the running internal commentary of a classic detective - sort of a canine Philip Marlowe. But he has his appropriately dog-like qualities as well, including major attention span issues.

The mystery itself was a bit thin and I figured out how it was going to end very early on. And there were some truly outrageous concidental plot twists. However, that did not detract from the story at all, as Chet’s take on things was very funny. I laughed out show more loud several times. An example would be Chet meeting someone he didn't take a fancy to by saying he smelled of the worst thing ever: cat.

This is great new voice in detective fiction. The fact that it the voice belongs to a dog simply adds to the overall interest. If you love dogs and are convinced they understand almost everything we are talking about, you will love this book. If you are a cat person, well, that might be a different story.

I’m looking forward to future adventures for Chet and Bernie, not least because Chet has foreshadowed revealing the background to his K9 school disaster – and there are those 2-for-1 vouchers at the rib restaurant that have yet to be redeemed. Good boy! show less

Chet and Bernie make a great private eye duo. Missing persons are their specialty. Bernie does the talking while Chet noses around and sniffs out clues. It works best that way since Chet can't talk and he has a better sense of smell. Chet is a dog. Their current case involves a missing 15-year-old girl. Did she run away, or was she kidnapped? Chet is the first-person narrator, and he has a delightful personality. Readers who've spent any amount of time with a dog will appreciate the humor in viewing the world from a canine perspective. Here's a taste:

Bernie said {to the client} “...you wouldn't want us going off to Vegas on a wild-goose chase.”

A wild-goose chase! I'd heard that expression so many times but never been on one. It show more sounded like the most exciting thing in the whole world. Yes, I wanted to go on a wild-goose chase, and if that meant Vegas, so be it.

After just one adventure with Chet and Bernie, I'm hooked, and I'm delighted that I have at least a half dozen more adventures ahead of me in this series! show less

Dog on It by Spencer Quinn is the first in the Chet and Bernie Mystery series. Chet and Bernie are private investigators; Bernie, the owner, is down on his luck detective with a heart and social conscience, while Chet, the narrator of the story, is a happy-go-lucky live for the moment sort of guy. Chet, incidentally, is a dog, and the entire story is told from his optimistic perspective. He enjoys the scents, sounds and tastes of life, loves Bernie unconditionally, and understands Bernie's words and gestures. He really doesn't solve any crimes, because he lives for the moment and forgets almost everything that happened previously, but helps out with his keen sense of smell, his ability to track, his protectiveness of Bernie, and his show more sixth sense for quickly assessing who is the bad guy. He quickly became my hero, with his keenness to please Bernie, his loyalty, enthusiasm, and good-natured humor. I had many laugh-out-loud moments in the story at Chet's narration; the author has found exactly the right tone for Chet. Bernie, as seen though Chet's eyes, is sweet, thoughtful, strong and wonderful. He talks to Chet constantly, which allows the story to flow along seamlessly.

Really great fun, and highly recommended for dog and/or mystery lovers. show less