Tender Is the Bite: A Chet & Bernie Mystery (The Chet and Bernie Mystery, #11)

by Spencer Quinn

The next adventure for Chet the dog, "the most lovable narrator in crime fiction" (Boston Globe), and his human partner, PI Bernie Little.

Chet and Bernie are contacted by a terribly scared young woman who seems to want their help. Before she can even tell them her name, she flees in panic. But in that brief meeting Chet sniffs out an important secret about her, a secret at the heart of the mystery he and Bernie set out to solve.

It's a case with no client and no crime and yet great danger, with the duo facing a powerful politician who has a lot to lose. Their only hope lies with a ferret named Griffie who adores Bernie. Is there room for a ferret in the Chet and Bernie relationship? That's the challenge Chet faces, the biggest of his career. Hanging in the balance are the lives of two mistreated young women and the future of the whole state.

• ISBN10: 1250770246
• ISBN13: 9781250770240
• Publish Date: 6 July 2021
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Out of Print: 14 May 2024
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: St Martin's Press
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 272
• Language: English

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally posted on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Tender Is the Bite is the 11th Chet & Bernie PI mystery by Spencer Quinn. Released 6th July 2021 by Macmillan on their Tor Forge imprint, it's 272 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

This is another fun and engaging read starring Chet (the dog) and Bernie (the human) doing what they do best, solving crimes, righting wrongs, and keeping each other (relatively) safe and functional. Although it's the 11th book in the series, all the books work very well as standalone novels. There are a few minor spoilers in the background story if read out of order, but nothing major.

Probably the most unusual aspect of the story is that it's told in the first person point of view of Chet, Bernie's Dr. Watson. Chet's a Very Smart Dog, but he is a dog and so there are many asides about smelling things and sort of a stream-of-consciousness commentary running throughout. I found it very distracting at first, but after a few chapters it wasn't as noticeable.

For current fans of the series, this is another solid mystery; full of political corruption, voluntary and involuntary disappearances, murders, and several apparently unrelated plot threads which intertwine ever more closely to an exciting denouement and satisfying resolution. The language is a bit rough in places, but not egregiously so. There is some sexual content (mostly discussed in the context of photographic evidence associated with the case), as well as physical violence. It's not over-the-top, but it is there.

Recommended for fans of mysteries with strong animal protagonists, and American PI mysteries.

Four stars.

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