Chet The Dog

Posts Tagged ‘Publishers Weekly’

Publishers Weekly on Mrs. Plansky’s Revenge

“Mrs. Plansky is a wonderfully memorable heroine, full of wit and equally plausible as an ace tennis player and a motorcycle-driving detective with Romanian gangsters hot on her tail. Readers will be eager to see what Mrs. Plansky gets up to next.”

(coming July 25, preorders welcome!)

Publishers Weekly on Bark To The Future

At the start of Quinn’s winning 14th Chet and Bernie mystery (after 2021’s It’s a Wonderful Woof), Bernie Little, owner of the Little Detective Agency, and his canine partner and the series’ narrator, Chet, are driving home to the Valley (somewhere in the American west) when Bernie stops the car to slip a few dollars to a homeless man standing by a freeway exit ramp. Bernie is shocked to realize that the man is Rocket Saluka, who played on Bernie’s high school baseball team. Bernie takes Rocket to a burger place, where Rocket shows Bernie a switchblade, his “most valuable possession.” Afterward, Bernie drops off Rocket at the exit ramp. When Bernie later hears Rocket has gone missing, Bernie traces his presence to a homeless encampment, where Chet digs up the knife in the man’s tent. With this as their only clue to his whereabouts, the duo set out on a trail that leads them back to Bernie and Rocket’s alma mater and into a web of crimes that culminates in murder. This entry offers a tidy mystery, a good dollop of action, and a rumination on life after high school—who could ask for more? Chet, with his innate doggie wisdom, is sure to inspire loyal fans and seduce new readers. (Aug.)*

*available for pre-order

Publishers Weekly on Tender Is The Bite (July 6)

At the start of Quinn’s cleverly plotted 11th Chet and Bernie mystery (after 2020’s Of Mutts and Men), PI Bernie Little of the Little Detective Agency is on the road with his canine partner, Chet, in the unidentified southwestern U.S. city where they live when Bernie realizes that their battered Porsche is being followed. Through some creative maneuvering, they block the car on their tail and thus meet an attractive and very frightened potential client, Mavis, who was driving the car. When Mavis spots a bumper sticker for Griffin Wray, a candidate for U.S. senator, in Bernie’s car, she panics and runs off. In their effort to discover why Mavis was scared of Wray, Bernie and Chet must contend with dead bodies that disappear and reappear in unlikely places, spying neighbors, and job offers that are too good to be true, not to mention a pesky ferret. Along the way, narrator Chet is a source of wisdom and innate doggie joie de vivre, making this a real pleasure for anyone who has ever looked into a dog’s eyes and asked: who’s a good boy? This outing should win this offbeat series new fans.

https://read.macmillan.com/promo/tenderisthebitepreorder

Beginnings (More)

Normally this feature appears on Sunday, but got pushed to today by Chet’s Friend of the Month. We’ve been doing beginnings – all the Chet and Bernies (as part of Chetspeak) – and now taking on all the Peter Abrahams novels in chronological order. Here, from 2003, #13, THEIR WILDEST DREAMS, first of the Arizona novels.

(“Peter Abrahams… is once again at the top of his game in this wildly inventive, captivating caper. Make that several capers-this novel’s multiple plot threads and unlikely assortment of characters carom off each other like so many carnival bumper cars. In typical fashion, Abrahams places a gaggle of ordinary folks in what gradually become distinctly unordinary scenarios, with an ever-so-creepy edge… The author’s up-to-the-minute pop-culture references lend an easygoing immediacy, and his wry humor is spot on-when one character wants to borrow a cell phone, he’s answered, “Mind waiting a bit? Off-peak starts in three minutes.” Off-peak, however, need not be a concern to readers of this bravura thrillfest.”
– Publishers Weekly)

And here’s the beginning:

Mackie dreaded the mail. That was new, one of the many new things in her life, none good.