Posts Tagged ‘review’
Spinetingler Magazine Review: The Dog Who Knew Too Much
February 12th, 2012 Posted 8:58 am
Ah, what a pleasure to re-enter the world of Chet, the canine narrator and K-9 school dropout, and his human companion, Bernie. In the midst of a plethora of dark books and novels featuring over-the-top sadism and end-of-the-world thrillers [not that there’s anything wrong with that, mind you], this charming series was just what I needed!
Not that there isn’t mystery aplenty here – including a missing person, murder etc. – after all, Bernie is a detective, and although very humorous, it isn’t your usual ‘cute-sy’ animal-detective tale either – – well, now that I think of it – – the latter does have his own blog [ChetTheDog.com]. The author [Quinn is the nom de plume of prolific author Peter Abrahams] has given us another terrific entry – – the fourth – – in this series, which is just as delightful as the prior books.
As the book opens, Bernie has been invited to be the keynote speaker at a p.i. convention, during which the organizer of the event offers Bernie $10,000 to buy Chet, which he refuses. Soon thereafter he is hired as a bodyguard. Neither of those things turns out to be as innocuous as one might think: The p.i. is not one to take no for an answer, and the bodyguard duty somehow morphs into a search for a boy who has gone missing while on a wilderness camp hike. Who better than a talented tracker like Chet to try to find him? But things, as always, get a bit more complicated; actually, a lot more complicated, and there is ultimately much more at stake. A quick and wonderfully entertaining book, and one that is highly recommended. – Gloria Feit
Welcome Ms. Sienna (with friend), dude who’s got my back (probably Jake), Mara, Dakota, and Jake.
Tags: review, Spinetingler, The Dog Who Knew Too Much
Posted in Chet The Dog
Thereby Hangs A Tail Review – From Suspense Magazine
January 26th, 2012 Posted 8:02 am
It’s a dog’s life in the desert with plenty of treats to eat, javelinas to chase, fellow pooches to befriend…and don’t forget murder. View the world through a dog’s eyes and watch him get excited about taking on a new case with the smartest human in the room. Spencer Quinn comes out with another winner with the second in the Chet and Bernie series.
Chet and his owner Bernie Little are hired to protect Adelina Borghese’s prizewinning pooch, Princess. After Chet steals Princess’ treat, they are summarily fired. However, soon after both Princess and her owner disappear. Then Bernie’s on-again off-again girlfriend, Suzie Sanchez, a reporter, also disappears after a desperate phone call. The trail leads to an old ghost town where Bernie is arrested and Chet is knocked out.
Chet gets separated from Bernie and begins his own adventure. Discovering first Adelina’s dead body, then finding Princess, he subsequently runs into two hippies who sell him to man bound to take Chet to Alaska. Who killed Adelina? Where is Suzie?
Where did Princess disappear to for the second time? How does a strange-
acting sheriff and his deputy in the next county tie into the case? Chet and Bernie track down the clues.
As with the first book in the series, the POV is first person, or rather, uh, dog. Quinn does an excellent job of unfolding the case while showing both Chet’s intelligence and his lack of knowledge in certain areas such as human language, memory on certain cases, and his inability to realize when he’s done something because it’s instinctual. Apparently, even though this is only the second book in the series, Chet and Bernie are veterans of investigative work with Chet remembering a lot of previous adventures. I
love the humor and Chet’s quirks. I so wanted to read the first book and when I had the chance to buy the second I took it. I will definitely be buying the third and fourth books in this series and hope there will be plenty more.
Reviewed by Stephen L. Brayton author of “Beta” for Suspense Magazine
Tags: review, Suspense Magazine, Thereby Hangs A Tail
Posted in Chet The Dog
The Examiner Reviews Robbie
January 17th, 2012 Posted 8:44 am
Peter Abrahams (aka Spencer Quinn) has done it again. He has proven the breadth of his writing abilities and his creativity with his latest release, Robbie Forester and the Outlaws of Sherwood St.
His main character, Robbie (short for Robyn), is an only child. The various characters in the story exemplify diversity, and her own family is no different. Her family is “different” in that her mother is the breadwinner, an attorney who works long hours, and her father is a writer who has published two books and is working on his third.
As a side note, Abrahams imbues the father with quite a bit of wackiness — all his comments about his new book make no sense to Robbie at all, and the reader gets the impression that the dad likes to hang out at coffee shops and “do” lunch with prospective agents. The mom is definitely the grounded partner here.
There’s a lot that doesn’t make sense to Robbie and she’s not afraid to admit it. The story is told in first person narrative, and she is self-deprecating, funny, and often at sea about the proper thing to say or do.
That all changes (somewhat) when she picks up a bracelet which falls off the wrist of a homeless woman she was trying to help. The bracelet is magic.
Part of the fun is watching Robbie and her new friends try to figure out just what kind of magic is in the bracelet. It seems that the magic works when it wants to. Mostly, it wants to right injustice, and in Brooklyn at that point, there is a lot of injustice to right.
A not-so-nice billionaire named Sheldon Gunn is trying to take over a big parcel of real estate, and he doesn’t care who is hurt in the process. The reader will meet the tenants who can’t afford the newly jacked-up rents and are losing their homes or businesses, including one soup kitchen where Robbie and her mother volunteered until its untimely closing.
In addition to Robbie, the characters are all fairly well described and interesting. Ashanti, a tall beautiful eighth-grade girl, is smart and brave. Her mother is a former model with unspecified emotional issues (she sleeps a lot). Silas, a friend of Ashanti’s, is home-schooled and a computer genius. Tut-Tut, from Haiti, lives in the projects near Robbie’s home and has such a bad stutter that he can’t finish one word unless the power of the magic is with him. Robbie learns he is an orphan who lives with an abusive uncle.
The magic is with Robbie and her friends, and it’s also with Pendleton, the Forester’s adopted shelter dog who is afraid of his own shadow. He’s a dog who will only go outside for a walk if a dog treat is promised. “He…cowered against a building to let a Chihuahua pass by.”
Robbie and her friends are courageous and foil the bad guys while braving arsonists, machine guns, icy oceans and more.
Readers ten years and older will enjoy this feel-good story about helping the downtrodden and doing the right thing. Isn’t that what Robin Hood is all about? Robbin’ the ‘hood to help the poor. And that’s just what this Robbie does, too, when she takes the money from the evil-doers and gives it to their victims.
Social justice and righting wrongs are great themes for children’s literature — throw in lots of adventure and some magic and it’s sure to be a hit!
Also known for his young adult Down the Rabbit Hole novel and his adult series about Chet and Bernie, Dog On It, To Fetch a Thief, The Dog Who Knew Too Much, etc., Abrahams has proven he can write stories that will appeal to readers of all ages. Picture book next, perhaps?
Tags: review, Robbie Forester and the Outlaws of Sherwood St.
Posted in Chet The Dog
