I’ve developed a new affection for the mystery genre, thanks to my Seton Hill classes.  This stems from the utmost respect I have for anyone who can pen an even passable mystery, as I can not plot my way out of a paper bag.  Any mystery more complex than a Scooby Doo episode sort of awes me.  I saw “Dog On It:  A Chet and Bernie Mystery” by Spencer Quinn on Amazon, then again at Barnes & Noble, and I figured I’d give it a shot.  Bernie is a down on his luck PI (a fresh, innovative concept) and Chet is his police dog academy flunk out canine companion with cute mismatched ears.  They are called upon to solve a missing persons case, a fifteen year old girl.  The father adamantly says she’s a runaway, but Bernie thinks that isn’t the case.  Add in a romance with a plucky, snoopy reporter, and the canine POV is really the only innovative part of the book.

            First off, the title.  I don’t think it’s cute.  “Dog On It”?  I have a soft spot for books from animal point of views when its done well, (“Three Bags Full” by Leonie Swann—though the mystery was totally the weakest link in that book) and that part of “Dog On It” was done well, minus some over the top cutesy-ness. 

            What the author did best was using the dog’s, Chet’s, point of view so that the audience knew more than the human protagonist did.  Chet can see and smell things that Bernie can’t, and it was fun to watch Bernie catch up with the rest of us.  Chet’s treatment of the back story was also interesting, since he would get distracted or forget details halfway through his descriptions, leaving us with sort of a puzzle to put together.  It left readers wanting more back story, never feeling inundated by it.

            As for the mystery, I had it all figured out pretty early on, between the clues Bernie saw and the clues Chet saw.  I’m pretty sure Quinn meant to do that, but I hate when I can figure out a mystery.  I like to be surprised at the end.  This book could have done with some more red herrings. 

            Quinn did a couple of things I really didn’t like.  There was a part where the dog was out of the blue contemplating how much he enjoyed going to the groomers, then two pages later the groomer showed up, and Bernie had “forgotten” he’d scheduled the appointment.  Chet said things like this were always happening to him.  Are they setting up canine telepathy for later books?  (The dust jacket promises that this isn’t the last we’ve heard of Chet and Bernie).  Seemed like a dumb coincidence to me, especially since the groomer taking the dog away made it so Bernie could be kidnapped.  The other thing that ate at me was that Chet had a lump on his back.  Several characters commented on it, I thought maybe it was a clue from a part where he’d been shot at, maybe there was a bullet in him and they’d use that to find the “perp,” or maybe he was dying of dog cancer, which would be very sad.  Instead, they ignored the lump, except when someone would mention it, which just made me more curious about it.  Maybe Chet has cancer in book two?

            I think this was a respectable, mediocre addition to the mystery genre.  Not much going on here that didn’t feel pretty well recycled, but I liked Chet’s voice when it didn’t get obnoxiously over the top.  I sure wish I hadn’t gotten the hardcover.