Dog On It by Spencer Quinn was the second book I read for the Wednesday Whodunit Mystery Book group at the Covina Public Library. I read the book in April 2011 in order to discuss it on May 4, 2011. It was written and published sometime during the past two years and was so well-received that the author has already published sequels. The book wasn’t available at the Covina Public Library nor could I download it as an epub or audiobook from the L.A. Public Library. We ordered a used copy of the book from Amazon.com for $4.
The premise of the book was different and even seemed a bit gimmicky: a mystery narrated by a dog. The dog, Chet, is owned by a private detective, Bernie who is divorced with a young son. They live in what seems like a small or medium-sized town in the Arizona desert. They get involved in a case of a missing teenage girl that soon becomes more complicated than it initially seems. There’s suspense and scares but Chet’s narration never gets too serious. He is a dog, after all.
But Chet is not just any dog. He’s a failed police dog with amazing leaping ability and a keen sense of smell. He can understand what people are saying. His communication with other dogs, his “guys” as he calls them, is more rudimentary: “Iggy (the neighbor’s dog) barked, so I barked back.” Chet gets distracted if he smells long leftover food. He lives more in the moment and doesn’t always understand what Bernie is talking about, though he does remember names and scents. He likes things that dogs like: sitting shotgun and putting his head out the car window, playing, getting scratched behind the ears in just the right places, fresh water in his bowl, being let out when he needs it. The other book club members thought the portrayal of Chet was very dog-like and accurate. Many of them own dogs.
The book has a lot of humor, mostly due to Chet’s playful narration. He’s always referring to stories he’ll get to later such as how he failed the police dog test because he got distracted by a cat. He sometimes gets sidetracked or distracted by smells or other things. He’ll feel a breeze and then realize that it’s from his tail wagging. He just has such a lighthearted way of narrating.
The other main characters are fairly likeable too such as Bernie and his friends who help with cases both people in the police force and criminals. The plot gets very exciting at times and some feats performed by Chet seem almost unbelievable. He does make mistakes, though and at one point gets captured. There’s a little bit about Bernie’s background but no clear picture. Perhaps more will be revealed in later books in the series.
I learned at the book discussion that Spencer Quinn is a pseudonym. Later I looked up the website for the series www.chetthedog.com and saw a link to Peter Abrahams’ website. He is the author of some more serious young adult mystery novels. He decided to take a different tactic with the Chet and Bernie mysteries and use a different name to distinguish them. I read on his website that Peter Abrahams is a fan of Ross MacDonald mysteries. This made him a good segue to the next book we had to read: The Drowning Pool by Ross MacDonald.
Overall I didn’t find Dog On It to be too gimmicky. It was enjoyable with the right mix of excitement and humor. Now whenever I see a dog or hear one barking I think, “There’s one of Chet’s guys.”
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