A Cat Was Involved
Series: Chet and Bernie Mysteries, Book 0.1
By: Spencer Quinn / Narrated By: Jim Frangione
Length: 52 mins
A sweet and compelling start to what miiiiiight be an awesome series
Lemme just tell you how I function with the disclosure that, if you hadn’t guessed it: I’m an audiobook addict. Hi, nice to meet ya—okay, now here it is. When an addict sees something like: 3 Audiobooks for $15? Oh good golly gosh, THAT is acted upon.
So I’d gotten the first in the Chet and Bernie Mysteries over on Audible, but then I got the next threeeeee in the series over on Kobo… and they’ve all been sitting there in my Libraries ever since. So it was a surprise and a delight when one of my sister’s choices for our audiobook club was A Cat Was Involved, Book 0.1 in the series. Huzzah for Sis cuz really, ‘twas not looking like I’d ever be getting around to any of ‘em.
As I’m new to the series, p’raps I’ll just tell ya what I’ve garnered from other reviews. Apparently, if you’ve been listening to the adventures of Chet and Bernie, there’s always a smattering of just how the two came to become a duo, of how earnest dog Chet flunked out of K-9 school, of how there was a cat involved in it all. Also apparently, fans have been clamoring to hear/read all of this resolved, and so author Spencer Quinn put it all together in this little book.
When our short story opens, Chet is (not so) obediently waiting in the back of a cop car to head off to the last day of K-9 testing. Though this is all told from Chet’s viewpoint, author Quinn doesn’t wallow in anthropomorphism but stays true to a dog’s nature. Chet is flighty; Chet is determined (As he gets into a serious Nudging Contest with a fellow K-9 candidate); Chet imMEDiately spots the cat in the backseat of the car parked next to them at the donut shoppe. He also spots two bad dudes as they scope out the joint and then steal the car, cat and all. Chet ALSO spots the car that then drives up and spills out an intriguing, kinda bourbon-y smelling man.
A bit of a brouhaha ensues as we discover that this man, Bernie Little, is a private investigator who is SERiously lacking in social skills, but who Chet finds captivating. Good thing cuz, after that purloined cat spoils Chet’s most dazzling leap for K-9 certification, the very good dog is almost deposited at the pound but is later taken to Bernie for the night. One thing leads to another, there’s some liberation then some sleuthing, then some mayhem, then we have Chet and Bernie Mystery-Solvers united.
At first I thought Jim Frangione’s narration was going to grate on me, but then it all started to meld nicely with the text. Frangione captures a dog’s eye-view of the world, of life, of how goofy they are, of how stalwart and loyal they can be. When Chet leaps and dances with joy juuuuuust after he thought he was about to be in very big trouble indeed, we spin with him, feel his lightness, feel just how contagious it all can be. Those of us who’ve been blessed to share life with dogs know the feeling, the joy that comes with a dancing dog!
Make no mistake, at only 52 minutes long this ain’t even a novella, TOTAL short story. Still and all, it’s a sweet little treat, tho’ now I wonder if maybe it might not have been funner to listen to the first few in the series and be entertained and confounded into wondering about the mystery of the cat who was involved and how it all came to be. But I must confess to having zippo capacity for Delaying Gratification, so my sister’s choice was just absolutely perfect.
And now? Audible Library? Kobo Library? Chet and Bernie the Series?
Here I come!
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