Dog On It (A Chet and Bernie Mystery #1) by Spencer Quinn

A nice twist on the detective story

Spencer Quinn and his dog

The premise of Dog On It is a simple one. It's a buddy book. Partners fighting crime like Holmes and Watson, Spenser and Hawk and now Bernie and Chet. Except for one important point - Chet is Bernie's dog.

The story is told from the point of view of Chet, a trained police dog that never quite graduated from the academy to a "leaping" incident that "involved blood."

Chet understands enough about human society so that the story doesn't bog down but he has that easily distractable live-in-the-moment quality that all dog lovers recognize. The mystery is pretty good, too. Bernie is hired to find a 15 year old girl who may be a runaway and may be the victim of foul play due to her father's shady real estate deals. Chet's unique perspective and talents as a dog and Bernie Little's ability to make the occasional intuitive leap make the Little Detective Agency a real threat to crime in the area.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Dog on It by Spencer Quinn.

Reviewed on January 13, 2009.