Spencer Quinn’s Chet & Bernie Mystery books have delightfully punny titles like The Sound and the Furry and Tender is the Bite; the 14th installment in the bestselling sequence is not any exception. In the Christmas-themed Up on the Woof Top, the twosome commerce Arizona sand for Colorado snow once they’re employed for a most uncommon case.
For the uninitiated: Chet the canine and Bernie Little of the Little Detective Agency are enterprise companions and finest buddies. Chet might adore Slim Jims, however there’s nothing he loves greater than the man he sweetly calls “my Bernie” all through his usually hilarious stream-of-consciousness narration. (To Chet, metaphors are baffling, tantalizing aromas are distracting and different animals are suspect: “I’ve had some experience with sheep, none good.”)
As Up on the Woof Top opens, the duo are attending a guide signing with Dame Ariadne Carlise, a globally bestselling thriller writer selling her 99th guide. Enchanted by Chet and intrigued by Bernie, Ariadne dispatches her assistant, Chaz, to rent them for the pressing job of serving to Ariadne break her author’s block by discovering her muse, Rudy.
It’s a curious project: Rudy’s a reindeer who went lacking from Ariadne’s ranch the day after Thanksgiving. Ariadne’s been preserving her struggles a secret, however Christmas and the deadline for guide 100 are quick approaching, and her profession and popularity cling in the stability.
At Kringle Ranch, fake snow is plentiful and a wreath-shaped blimp hovers in the sky, however beneath the manufactured merriment lurks nice hazard. Chaz is found grievously injured at the backside of the Devil’s Purse gorge, the place Ariadne’s boyfriend, Teddy, was discovered murdered many years earlier than. Is Chaz’s scenario associated to Teddy’s demise? Will the (notably ill-tempered) sheriffs current and former assist an investigation led by outsiders? And what does Rudy should do with all of this?
A seemingly easy, albeit unusual, monitoring project evolves right into a multilayered investigation as Chet and Bernie race towards time to seek out the lacking reindeer and unravel the fact about Chaz’s accidents and Teddy’s loss of life. Tense interrogations, gripping motion scenes and intelligent detective work make Up on the Woof Top an enticing, entertaining vacation deal with.
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