Excellent; good for relaxing read

audio fiction - #13 in Chet and Bernie dog humor mystery series (9 hrs 13 min)

I mostly keep coming back to this series because I like spending time with Chet (skillfully voiced by Jim Frangione), but the mystery plot is satisfying enough as they go. Here, Chet and Bernie meet up with some of Bernie's acquaintances from high school as they search for a classmate who has disappeared. ( )

I love this series. Chet seems like a real dog, except for his knowledge of finance. What always frustrates a little, in a realistic way, is that if only Chet could tell Bernie what he knows from his superior smell, for instance, they'd be even more of a dynamite team.

I liked this book well enough, but maybe the series is getting to be too much the same. I don't put a lot of effort into guessing who dunnit, but I guessed the killer not because of any clues but just from having read the previous books. A very small amount of information confirmed it.

I wouldn't dream of missing the next one. ( )

Bark to the Future
By Spencer Quinn
This is one of my favorite stories. Lots of twists, turns, and suspense. As always, there is plenty of humor and wit to go around. Told by Chet, the dog partner to Bernie the PI. Love this series! ( )

Chet and Bernie are back, with another mystery to solve--though it takes them a while to find a client for this case. They meet an older man, clearly hard-used by life, whom Bernie is shocked to realize is a high school classmate. Rocket was a teammate on the high school baseball team, and made a game-winning save that took them to the state championship.

Something, clearly, happened after that high point. Bernie and Chet take him out for a good meal, then drop him off at the highway off ramp he considers his territory.

But Bernie can't let go of Rocket's sad state, and the very confusing things he said and didn't say. He needs to know what happened to Rocket, and he and Chet start investigating.

Along the way, they find a finely made switchblade knife, the baseball coach who still hasn't retired, Bernie's junior prom date now running a restaurant, and the priest who has lately been providing Rocket a place to live, in his homeless encampment behind the church. There are others, too, some who care about Rocket, and some who may be less friendly.

When Rocket mysteriously disappears, it's no longer idle curiosity on Bernie's part.

If we didn't know the dangers of slot canyons, we do before the end of the book,

There are several criminal enterprises adjacent to the case, and it's not easy figuring out which one is relevant to Rocket's sad state, or to his disappearance.

Weatherly Wauneka, police sergeant with a dog named Trixie, who looks remarkably like Chet, and is the same age, seems to be established as Bernie's new love, and also a helping hand when police assistance is needed.

It's a solid, comfortable, enjoyable adventure with Chet and Bernie.

Recommended.

I bought this audiobook. ( )