Humorous detective work by this devastating duo!

Tender Is the Bite Chet & Bernie Mystery #11) by Spencer Quinn            

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Another delightful, dangerous, and confusing mystery with the duo of dudes from the The Little Agency, Bernie Little (hard boiled detective with heart) and Chet the Jet (failed police dog—so it’s rumoured). 

This time an almost client disappears. Bernie and Chet turn down a big payout and a sojourn in Hawaii because Bernie’s worried about the almost client and didn’t take to Olek the Rumanian hirer.  Although Chet does have a thought, “Was it possible that we were walking away from a stack of cold hard cash that Olek was paying us for a job that was all about surfing?” Somehow Chet’s been listening to their accountant. Wow!

I get so much pleasure from Chet’s moments of enlightment, his running commentary on all things human, and our taken for granted actions and sayings from his doggie perspective.

Like Chet on trains of thought. “Was there a whole world of thoughts out there, just waiting to be found? Whoa! Another thought right there, and on the scary side. I shut the whole thing down.” Huge!

Then Chet on actual “thinking”—always nearly tripping over at the vastness of the idea. About now, his head zoned out, Chet usually takes a nap because it’s all too much!

And what about when Chet realizes he mostly has no thoughts in his head! “My mind was like the desert? How come I was just finding that out now?”

Occasionally I feel like I’m listening to a Steven Wright monologue. Priceless!

Almost every page has either a “whoa there!” or hilarious thought. 

And then there’s the heart stopping moments! Like when Bernie is almost framed, almost killed—indeed there’s heaps of almosts! 

I must admit that Chet on more than one occasion pulls Bernie’s bacon out of the fire. Although he does get confused when someone mentions bringing home the bacon and he can’t see any. ‘Cause eating is one of his prime delights.

Us humans do confuse a dog like Chet sometimes! Well many times really!

A comic murder mystery that sets the dogs amongst the ferrets—well this time anyway!

Lots of fun!

A Macmillan-Tor/Forge ARC via NetGalley 

Please note: Quotes taken from an advanced reading copy maybe subject to change