Thereby Hangs A Tail (A Chet and Bernie Mystery #2) by Spencer Quinn


The Second in a Nifty Series

Published in 2010.

I read the first book in the Chet and Bernie series as part of the Amazon Vine program, meaning I was given a pre-publication copy of the book for free. I thought the series had a good hook to it (Chet is a dog, his owner Bernie Little is a private detective - the only detective in the Little Detective Agency. The story is told entirely from the point of view of Chet) but I doubted it would have staying power. I am pleased to say that I was mistaken - not only does this series have legs, but each of the two follow up stories are better than the original.

 Chet is a completely trained police dog who will only say that he washed "out on the very last day, a long story, but it's not secret that a cat was involved!" Bernie and Chet are now partners in the best sense of the word - Chet often is well on his way to solving the mystery before Bernie has anything figured out due to his superior sense of smell and hearing, but it is so hard for a dog to explain things to humans (and sometimes Chet does not even know he has solved it because it is so hard for dogs to concentrate and use those higher level thinking skills).
Spencer Quinn and his dog
In Thereby Hangs a Tail, Chet and Bernie are hired to protect a prize-winning tiny dog as she competes in a dog show. But, Chet's enthusiasm and impulsiveness when it comes to dog treats causes the prissy owner to fire Chet and Bernie, only to be kidnapped hours later. Her husband hires the Little Detective Agency to find both the owner and the dog and that's when things start to get real complicated....

 This is a truly fun series. I hope that Spencer Quinn keeps up the high quality and the great insights into dog behavior and psychology as he continues to tell Chet and Bernie's stories.

 Click on the 'Spencer Quinn' or 'Chet and Bernie' tags below to see my reviews on books 1 and 3 in the series.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5 and it can be found on Amazon.com here: Thereby Hangs A Tail (A Chet and Bernie Mystery #2) by Spencer Quinn.

 Reviewed June 20, 2011.

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