Sunday, July 20, 2014

Paw and Order (Chet and Bernie #7), by Spencer Quinn

Atria Books, ISBN 9781476703398, August 2014

Chet, ex-police K9, and Bernie Little, private detective, are back, and this time they're learning their way around the nation's capital, a town that Chet is fairly sure is called Foggy Bottom.

When they leave New Orleans at the end of their last case, Bernie decides that he and Chet should make a surprise visit to Susie Sanchez in Washington, presumably because it worked out so well when Susie made the surprise trip to see them in NOLA. What could possibly go wrong?

The misunderstandings start when they arrive unexpectedly at Susie's front door just as a suave Brit is leaving. Susie is chasing a story that might involve a leading presidential candidate, Bernie is trying to figure out who really killed the suave Brit who was found dead just a few hours after he left Susie's, and Chet is puzzling over the strange metallic bird that keeps hanging around Susie's house.

This is a solid Chet & Bernie adventure, with Bernie following the facts, and Chet reporting them through the filter of his doggy level of understanding, while also contributing his own special talents to the investigation. The pace keeps moving, and the puzzle is an interesting one. If sometimes the reader wants to smack Bernie upside the head for his obtuseness and failure to communicate what he's thinking and feeling to Susie, well, he wouldn't be Bernie if he didn't have those blind spots.

Fun summer reading. Recommended.

I received a free electronic galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.

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