Crime and Cats

A librarian in a movie theater notices what looks like a bear sitting next to him. "Are you a
bear?" asked the librarian, surprised. "Yes." "What are you doing at the movies?" The bear replied, "Well, I liked the book.”

When you think about librarians you think about a comfy sweater, glasses, tea and almost always a cat, never a dog, a bird, and certainly not a bear.  Why a cat? Maybe the stereotype has been around so long that is the first thing you think about.

There have been many books written about crime and cats. Lilian Jackson Braun, Koko and YumYum, is the first one readers think about. Many other books before her featured cats.  Can you think of a fiction book featuring a dog?

There have been several. Little Yellow Dog by Walter Mosley, Robert Parker’s Spencer and his faithful dog Pearl, Dashiell Hamlett’s Asta.  Most are just dogs. They are not crime fighters or murder solvers. That is until Chet.

Bernie runs the Little Detective Agency, sometimes breaks even, but mostly is just hanging on.
Created by Spencer Quinn the stories are told through the eyes of Chet. Chet narrates the entire book and brings his innocent way of looking at the world to the story.  Some events bring back memories of past adventures.  Chet always says “more about that later.”   

Chet is a dropout from the police academy's K9 program. A 100-pound mutt, with his one white ear and his one black one, is clever and loyal to a fault, and says he's seen it all, but he just doesn't understand humans. You ought to see him sniff out clues. The exception being when a squirrel crosses his path.

The books are a joy to read and give a dog a chance to be the hero. Chet and Bernie books are available at RPL.
Dog on It, Thereby Hangs a Tail, To Fetch a Thief, The Dog Who Knew Too Much, A Fistful of Collars, Scents and sensibility, The Sound and the Furry, Paw and Order. 

Also try Spencer Quinn’s latest novel the Right Side. It is about a deeply damaged female soldier home from the war in Afghanistan who becomes obsessed with finding a missing girl, gains an unlikely ally in a stray dog, and encounters new perils beyond the combat zone. Also available at RPL.