THE DOG WHO KNEW TOO MUCH - Spencer Quinn

Continuing in my quest to post all the Shelf Awareness reviews, today's review appears with their permission.

First line: "Was I proud of Bernie or what?"


The fourth installment of Spencer Quinn’s Chet and Bernie series finds the dynamic PI duo tracking a missing boy. Devin vanishes one night while out camping in the high country with his leader and four other boys. The leader theorizes that Devin wandered off in the night to go to the bathroom and simply got lost. His mother thinks her ex-husband snatched the boy. And all the theories go down the drain when expert tracker, Chet, uncovers startling new clues and Bernie ends up in jail on suspicion of murder. And life with Chet and Bernie can never be simple as a stray puppy proves in The Dog Who Knew Too Much.

The relationship between Chet and Bernie has been compared to Scooby Doo and Shaggy or Wallace and Gromit, but those comparisons miss the depth of connection Quinn builds between his protagonist duo. The relationship is undoubtedly humorous but it’s also respectful, insightful and passionate. Chet and Bernie are a pack unto themselves and they know their roles, so when other factors influence that pack dynamic, such as a stray puppy, the character interactions are as suspenseful as the plot events.

Quinn balances humor well with his content. Murder and a missing child are dark, solemn topics; Quinn manages to convey that seriousness while still entertaining his readers.

With Chet narrating, readers are reminded of many things we humans take for granted. And we even get a look at ourselves that we may not have ever thought about before.

Give Quinn a treat. He’s earned it with The Dog Who Knew Too Much.

The Dog Who Knew Too Much is available in hardcover (ISBN: 978-1439157091) from Atria and on audio, narrated by Jim Frangione, from Recorded Books (B005LEV0P4).

You've the Right to Six Words - Week 14

After this week, we'll have two more weeks of memoirs for this season. Since this will probably be the end, at least for awhile, I thought we should blow it out in style. Sound good? I hope so because I've stacked the next three weeks with fabulous crime fiction writers.

Debut author, Carla Buckley was born in Washington DC but her childhood was spent in Nigeria and Thailand. She and her family returned to DC when she was 10 and for college, Carla made her way up to my neck of the woods; she attended Oberlin College, where incidentally, her daughter will be starting school very shortly.  Since Carla and her family are more in the central part of Ohio these days, it may make micro-managing her daughter's life a tad bit difficult.

Carla finished college and tried her hand at graphic arts, technical writing and marketing before staying home to raise her family, and start her writing career. In February of this year, Carla saw the fruits of all her labors in writers' groups and conferences and long hours of practice pay off. THE THINGS THAT KEEP US HERE was published by Delacorte Press. THE THINGS THAT KEEP US HERE had some roots in her family's decision to pick up and move to Columbus, Ohio, leaving friends, family and everything familiar behind. Carla's follow-up to THE THINGS THAT KEEP US HERE is due out in 2011 and is tentatively titled INVISIBLE. I'm fascinated by the fact that Carla tried writing many different kinds of books for years and when a dream - or rather a nightmare - about a pandemic left her shaken, she knew she wanted to write THAT book, it was something she truly felt passionate about. She

Kept trying keys until one fit.

And we can all be thankful for her determination to keep trying.

Kevin Guilfoile has spent time all over the Northeast corner of the U.S. He was born in New Jersey, raised in New York, attended college in Indiana, and worked for the Houston Astros all before helping to create the Coudal Partners design firm in Chicago. These days, however, Kevin is making his name as a writer. He's contributed to The Morning News, McSweeney's Quarterly Concer, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, The New York Times Magazine, The New Republic and Salon.com. He's also a contributing blogger at The Outfit. In 2005 Kevin published his first novel, CAST OF SHADOWS, and he is preparing to release his sophomore novel, which Stephen White calls "part thought-provoking mystery, part flat-out thriller." Guilfoile fans have waited and on Tuesday, Kevin delivers THE THOUSAND. I also happen to know that Kevin is very serious about the pens he uses to sign his books. So if you meet Kevin at a signing, be sure to compliment him on his pen, which continues to write because

Every story has beginning, middle
and

:-)

Our next memoirist has no regrets. Together he and his wife raised four children; he enjoys playing tennis and wishes he was musical. When Peter Abrahams decided he would write a book about a detective and his dog, he knew the book would be in first person as told by the dog. But the dog couldn't be talking. He believes "anything that thinks and has memory must have a narrative going on inside." Thus DOG ON IT and the pen name Spencer Quinn were born. As Peter Abrahams, he published eighteen novels, earning a Best Novel Edgar nomination for his novel LIGHTS OUT, wrote the Echo Falls Mysteries series for young readers, and was referred to as "my favorite American suspense novelist" by Stephen King. Now as Spencer Quinn, living in Cape Cod with his family (which includes his dog Audrey), he's preparing to release the third Chet and Bernie novel, TO FETCH A THIEF. Working in his office located over the garage, Spencer brings to life the wonderful tales of Chet and his human partner Bernie. And as he heads off to his fifteen feet commute he says,

Into the dark with no regrets.

And rounding out this incredible week we have a woman who also won accolades from Stephen King who said, "her five novels are, simply put, the finest crime-suspense series I've come across in the last twenty years."

Meg Gardiner was born and raised in the United States. While in high school in California she was a mime, and while studying law at Stanford she competed in cross-country and track. Having grown up the daughter of an English professor, books and writing were a major part of Meg's life; she always wanted to write a novel, but she found her way there via law school, a legal career and a stint teaching law writing at the University of California. When she decided she didn't want to "argue for a living," she traded her arguing for lying. Meg writes a blog titled, "Lying for a Living."

Meg moved to the UK with her husband and children in the early 1990s and this was when she began writing. CHINA LAKE was her first published novel, finding bookstores in the UK in 2002. When it made its way to the US in 2008, Meg was rewarded with the 2009 Best Paperback Original Edgar win. Meg continued with Evan Delaney, her CHINA LAKE protagonist for another four books and in 2008 she published her first novel featuring forensic psychiatrist Jo Beckett,  THE DIRTY SECRETS CLUB. This summer the third book in the Jo Beckett series, THE LIAR'S LULLABY was published.

So what does the three-time Jeopardy champ, escaped attorney, mother and author have to say about this array of accomplishments?

Love, kids, writing:
went for it.

And we are the great benefactors of her leap of faith. Many, many thanks once again to our wonderful authors for their time and enthusiasm. What absolute fun! I hope you all enjoyed this week's roundup. Man, is there ever a slew of great book titles in this post. Let us know which you've enjoyed or which you're going to check out now. And we'll see you back here next week for our penultimate week of memoirs.

Happy Reading!

Technorati Tags: You've the Right to Six Words, Carla Buckley, Kevin Guilfoile, Spencer Quinn, Meg Gardiner

THEREBY HANGS A TAIL - Spencer Quinn

THEREBY HANGS A TAIL is Spencer Quinn's follow-up to his New York Times Bestseller, DOG ON IT. In this outing, P.I. Bernie and canine sidekick, Chet, are called on to find a missing contessa and her show dog, Princess. The ante is raised even further when reporter Susie Sanchez also winds up missing. This adventure separates Bernie and Chet, takes them to "Nowhereville," and matches their wits with a pair of nomad Hippies. And everything is told from the point of view of Chet.

THEREBY HANGS A TAIL warmed this animal-lover's heart. I have not yet read DOG ON IT, but rest assured I will be back-tracking to do just that. The use of Chet as the storyteller is a fresh perspective on crime fiction. And as a pet-owner myself I found myself nodding and chuckling as Quinn brought out behaviors I've seen in my own dogs. The humor comes from the animal's rationale for the behavior.

The use of this perspective also throws another challenge into the puzzle of the mystery. The narrator is unreliable because he doesn't always understand what's going on and he isn't always privy to all information. On the other hand, he often has information that the humans don't, especially information related to sound or smell:

"Did I smell anything? Was that the question? Did it mean Bernie smelled nothing right now, not even the coyote piss? Every coyote in the desert must have been using Red Butte as a kind of giant fire hydrant. I checked out Bernie's nose, a not-quite-straight little thing: what was it used for?"

But together Bernie and Chet make a great pair of detectives:

"Bernie's brain was one of the best things we had going for us, right up there with my nose."

"'We're trying to separate truth from lies. That's a big part of our job.' It was? First I'd heard about it. Our job was to track down perps and grab them by the pant leg. But Bernie had his reasons, whatever that meant, and I had my own ways, which was why we were such a good team..."

The realism of these two crime fighters is a big part of the draw for THEREBY HANGS A TAIL. And while the book provides a fresh perspective, it also incorporates many of the traditional characteristics of the private eye: a loner with issues. Bernie is divorced and only has partial custody of his son Charlie. Quinn hints at a problem with alcohol. And Bernie's finances are less than stellar.

From these rich characters, Quinn creates a plot including elements of the Wild West, the 60s and the Westchester Kennel Club Dog Show. It's packed with humor, with tenderness, and with action. The combination keeps the pages turning, and Quinn leaves one last present for the very end: a cliffhanger, reassuring the readers that THEREBY HANGS A TAIL will not be the last tale of Bernie and Chet.

Bernie and Chet have assured themselves a place on my list of favorite P.I. pairs.

THEREBY HANGS A TAIL is published by Atria Books and is available in hardcover (ISBN: 978-1-4165-8585-5) today, January 5, 2010.