Bernie Little and his K9 dropout partner Chet are an Arizona-based PI shop - The Little Detective Agency. A Bayou native that Bernie helped outfit in a county orange jumpsuit is doing the roadside cleanup gig and when Bernie happens by, offers him a job to find his missing brother. Bernie's not crazy about the job, but resists a bigger payday and takes the gig cuz that's who asked first.
Bernie and Chet take off in Bernie's old Porshe convertible for Louisiana to find the missing brother.
His first interview with the 2 other brothers reads more like test dialogue for Abbott and Costello's Who's on First exchange. Anyway, Bernie asks his questions, gets lied to, beaten up, assaulted as he closes in on the real mystery that surrounds a new oil platform due to go live any day now.
Simple, straight forward PI tale. Except for one minor detail. The story is told mostly by Chet; yes, Quinn speaks fluent dog. And while this is a very clever and creative way to tell a story (and has been done before, most recently in Robert Crais' Suspect), it just never really resonated with me. Can't say Quinn is a neophyte as this is his 6th Bernie and Chet book, some of which were bestsellers, so he has a loyal following. I found myself skipping text where Chet was daydreaming or otherwise disconnected to Bernie's investigation; hey, there are lots of good smells down in the Bayou.
Like I said, clever and creative and very well crafted, just not really my cup of tea, and I can't really put my finger on why it didn't grab me.
East Coast Don
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