Of Mutts and Men (The Chet and Bernie Mystery, #10)

by Spencer Quinn

• ISBN10: 1250297699
• ISBN13: 9781250297693
• Publish Date: 7 July 2020
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Out of Print: 3 July 2023
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: St Martin's Press
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 304
• Language: English

Reviews

[Quirky Cat]

Of Mutts and Men is the tenth novel in Spencer Quinn's Chet and Bernie Mystery. I'll confess that I haven't actually read the first nine novels in this series – my bad. I got so excited about the idea of a mutt mystery that I completely got ahead of myself. Still, I really enjoyed this mystery and had no trouble jumping right on in.

Chet and Bernie run the Little Detective Agency together. It doesn't matter to them that one of them is a man, while the other is a dog. They make a great team, and nothing is ever going to change that.

However, the latest case ended up being more violent than intended. What should have been a normal meeting turned out to be a crime scene, and that means this dynamic duo will not be walking away from the case anytime soon.

"K-nine. That would be like Sherlock Holmes walking a beat."

Oh my goodness! Of Mutts and Men was such a delight to read! I'm glad I took the risk and dove right into this series, despite having no history with it! It was worth it – though I will be adding the rest of the series to my ever-growing TBR list. It's worth it.

Chet is such an endearing – and brilliant – dog! I was immediately charmed by him and by Bernie's steadfast devotion to his canine companion. It made the perfect basis for this mystery novel (though I might be biased here, as I've been finding that I particularly enjoy animal mystery series as of late).

I think the thing I loved the most about this novel is that I went in with one clear expectation of what was going to happen and got something completely different. It's easy to create assumptions when it comes to certain tropes – say, a man and his dog solving crimes. Those assumptions are going to quickly get blasted apart here – leaving lots of fun and thrills.

While I didn't have the full history of this duo, I can sincerely say that I would recommend Of Mutts and Men to any potential readers. I'd also argue that the entire series (Chet and Bernie Mystery) is worth checking out.

Thanks to Forge and #NetGalley for making this book available for review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Read more reviews over at Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks>

[annieb123]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Of Mutts and Men is the 10th Chet & Bernie mystery by Spencer Quinn. Released 7th July 2020 by Macmillan on their Forge Books imprint, it's 304 pages and available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats.

This is a long running series of modern PI murder mysteries narrated by the canine half of the duo. Chet the shepherd carries the stories along with pithy observations about life, love, humans, dogs, and occasionally squirrels. There's a synergy between Chet and his human sidekick, private investigator Bernie Little. Despite being murder mysteries (this one includes a grisly exanguination), there's a real warmth and humor to the writing which makes them appealing. The mysteries themselves, the hidden motives, the interrelationships between the characters, and the nuts-and-bolts technical construction make this an engaging read.

This is a true partnership and they trust and depend on one another and I have really enjoyed every new book in the series. This one sees some nice background character development. Although it's the 10th book, it works very well as a standalone; the author's very adept at providing necessary backstory without spoon feeding. The dialogue is never clunky and the story arc moves along at a good clip. I was so invested in the story I wound up reading it in one setting. Every new entry into the series feels like a welcome visit with a good old friend.

Four stars, honestly closer to five.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.