The Chet and Bert series delivers in two categories. There is always an excellent mystery with lots of moving parts to be solved and there is the entertaining relationship between a man and his dog. Spencer Quinn should be in the top ten of your tbr list.

This is a delightful read … especially since Chet, the dog, is the voice of the book. I love detective books with an interesting adventure. This one does not disappoint. Between well-developed characters and Christmas spirit, this book will be just what you need to read. This one can be read as a standalone. But you’ll want to to back and read the first 11 in the series!

Thank you to NetGalley and Forge Books for my advanced review copy. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

For more reviews, please visit my blog at: https://www.msladybugsbookreviews.com/. Over 1000 reviews posted!

It's a Wonderful Woof is a fun mystery, full of clues, red herrings, and surprising revelations along the way. But the secret to its magic definitely lies in its canine narrator Chet, one-half of the Little Detective Agency. The other, human, half, Bernie Little, is a large, rough-and-tumble kind of man, a tough PI with a heart of gold and a soft touch for his investigating partner.  


Bernie knows nothing about art, so when a potential client comes to him asking for help on an art world case, Bernie refers him to another PI, Victor Klovsky. The case involves lots of online research and little action, and seems more Victor's alley. Except that Victor disappears while investigating, and his mother elicits Bernie's help in finding him.

The case itself is fascinating. Chet and Bernie's investigation leads them to an old church, an archaeologist excavating some ruins, and a museum dedicated to local history and culture. As someone who likes art and museums, I was fascinated by all the talk about Caravaggio, and some of the finds (which, from Google, I figure are fictional) they come across got my inner art nerd all excited. There's a moment when the museum's director receives a donation that makes her burst into tears, and honestly, I fully understand why -- such an acquisition for a small museum would be phenomenal. (Though a practical part of my brain can't help but wonder about how they would afford the insurance required.)

Like I said, though, the key to the novel's magic is Chet himself, who narrates the case with huge dollops of doggy enthusiasm. It's a joy to see Bernie through Chet's eyes -- however other characters may respond to the PI, Chet genuinely believes Bernie is perfect and can do no wrong. So even when Bernie is discouraged about an aspect of the case, Chet's narration assures us that things can't be so dire, because obviously Bernie will know just what to do. Chet's perspective is just so pure and full of joy and love, and it's sheer pleasure just being in his brain. The case does get a bit violent at times -- for example, a man was found murdered by waterboarding in a tub, and another scene shows a man getting shot by a sniper rifle. In many ways, the story has the elements of a hardboiled detective noir, but Chet's narration softens the edges significantly, and gives it more of a cozy mystery feel.

It's also fun to see the suspects and other characters through the perspective of a dog. For example, the archaeologist is described as becoming nervous all of a sudden, because of an unmistakable shift in her scent. In other scene, the museum director and Bernie have their heads close together; Chet notices how her scent changes, and she seems about to close the distance even more, but Bernie's scent stays the same and he shows no inkling of moving closer. It's a subtle moment, but beautifully portrayed; the author does a great job of showing how much dogs pick up that humans don't. 

Yet in other ways, Chet is also hilariously confused by human behaviour. There's a scene where Bernie and a potential love interest are clearly on the verge of arguing. Chet can sense the shifts in moods, and the tension in both characters' tones, but has no idea what's going on. Chet's also super self-aware of the limitations of his knowledge sometimes, which makes the scene even funnier.

Overall, this is a fun book. Bernie's a great series co-lead, and I absolutely love how the author handles Chet as an equal co-lead and main narrative voice. The story wasn't a super page-turner for me -- it took me a while to finish it -- but the series itself seems really charming. Chet and Bernie make a fantastic team.

+

Thank you to Forge Books for an e-galley of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Filled with the usual humour and amusing observations from a canine's point of view it's not ground breaking in terms of doing something different, but that's absolutely no bad thing as far as I'm concerned. Throughly enjoyed it.

This is a good series and I enjoy these books a lot. The characters are well written and very well defined.

Chet is the best narrator of any book I've ever read. I will always pick up a Chet and Bernie mystery with high hopes -and have yet to feel any twinge of disappointment. 10/10 Good boy

Spencer Quinn’s It’s a Wonderful Woof is an animal mystery that will appeal to a specific group of readers but is limited by its choice of tone and protagonist.
To be fair, I’m not sure that I’ve ever read an ‘animal’ cozy that I really liked, but this series is extremely popular, and I wanted to give it a try. It’s definitely not my cup of tea. The humor and the voice are too juvenile (granted, it’s being told by a dog), and the story wasn’t interesting enough to compensate. There’s clearly an audience for this type of book, but it’s not me.
Recommended for readers of animal mysteries.

I love the Chet and Bernie mysteries! Having Chet narrate adds some humor, while the stories, themselves are serious mysteries that are really intriguing. Chets love for Bernie shines through and Bernie's concern for the people he is helping us always apparent. Always a feel good read. I highly recommend " It's a Wonderful Woof".

I still remembering discovering book 1 of the Chet and Bernie series, Dog on it. Now here we are at book 12 and it's a wonderful Christmas story for Chet and his friends. This can be read as a stand alone but don't miss the previous 11 stories. As always, Chet the dog is the narrator of the story. His sometimes memory lapses and interpretation of events will have you laughing out loud. Any dog lover should take note of the dog thinking process presented in this series. Bernie's fellow private eye, Victor disappears and they decide to find him. They did recommend his current client. Love this series, Can't wait for next book. I received a copy of this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Spenc er Quinn continues his goofy cozy mysteries that Chet the ex police dog narrates of his adventures with his partner Bernie for the Little Detective Agency. Bernie has no cases and refers a case to his fellow detective, the less successful, Victor. On the way to Christmas the referral turns out to get his friend in a lot of trouble. It's a Wonderful Woof is Chet's story about how things turn out.

It's a Wonderful Woof is the 12th outing for Chet and Bernie by Spencer Quinn. Released 19th Oct 2021 by Macmillan on their Tor Forge imprint, it's 272 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

This is another fun and engaging read starring Chet (the dog) and Bernie (the human) doing what they do best, solving crimes, righting wrongs, and keeping each other (relatively) safe and functional. Although it's the 12th book in the series, all the books work very well as standalone novels. There are a few minor spoilers in the background story if read out of order, but nothing major.

Probably the most unusual aspect of the story is that it's told in the first person point of view of Chet, Bernie's Dr. Watson. Chet's a Very Smart Dog (and a Very Good Boy), but he is a dog and so there are many asides about smelling things and sort of a stream-of-consciousness commentary running throughout. I found it very distracting at first, but after a few chapters it wasn't as noticeable.

For current fans of the series, this is another solid mystery with a cleverly constructed plot complete with a satisfying denouement and conclusion. The language is fairly clean throughout and on the same average as the other books with regards to violence.

Recommended for fans of mysteries with strong animal protagonists, and American PI mysteries. I'm impressed how this series continues to be solidly entertaining without being overly formulaic. Chet and Bernie are the good guys.

Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

I just adore Chet and Bernie mysteries and this one didn’t disappoint!
Obviously a holiday mystery, things are not ho-ho-holy in the Valley. Fellow detective Victor Klovsky is reported missing after he doesn’t show up to his mom’s to light the Hanukkah candles. Klovsky’s case was for a client that Bernie referred to him after turning it down. Are the two related? And how do the missing client, the professor, and the mission ruins fit into it all?
Chet’s narration provides delightful canine insight (or lack thereof) as the partners wind, duck, and bump their way through this holiday caper.

#NetGalley #ItsaWonderfulWoof

I love Bernie and Chet! Chet is an amazing narrator with a wonderful combination of innocence and insight. Spencer Quinn is one of my favorite authors and I can’t wait to read more of these adventures.

Its a Wonderful Woof (Chet & Bernie #12) by Spencer Quinn
Chet is such a wonderful dog. And his voice in these stories is spot on. This time around, Bernie is pulled into finding a missing PI who Bernie had referred a case to. Lots of local history and serious art history. And Bernie just may be falling in twoo wov. Plenty of tension and lots of humor. I love every one of these books.

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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WHAT'S IT'S A WONDERFUL WOOF ABOUT?
Someone comes to the Little Detective Agency to hire them, but it's just not the kind of case that calls for Bernie's strengths, but he knows just the right guy for the job, Victor Klovsky. The two had recently run into each other on different cases, and Bernie's been reminded that Victor isn't cut out for the more, shall we say, physically demanding cases—but he's great at the stuff you can do behind a desk, which is what this case calls for.

Also, I think Bernie feels sorry for the guy and thinks he can do him a favor by sending work his way to make up for the way things went during that recent encounter.

You know what they say about roads and best intentions, though. It's not long before Victor has gone missing—a very concerned mother (who has less confidence in his abilities than Bernie does) hires Chet and Bernie to find him. It turns out that not only Victor is missing, but his client is, too.

There's nothing about this case that suggests a cushy desk job anymore—a strong sense of violence surrounds the disappearances—and other elements of the case as it develops. Can Chet and Bernie sniff out what happened to them, and what the relationship is between these disappearances, Mary and Joseph fleeing to Egypt, Caravaggio, and an old Spanish mission?

RELATIONSHIP ISSUES
This is news to no one that has read one book in this series, but Bernie's not good at relationships. Expressing himself to a woman he cares about is not a skill he possesses (I'm sure Chet would differ with me here, but I stand by it).

His current relationship is still pretty new—and seems to be going pretty well. But that's all stuff that happened since Tender is the Bite. It doesn't take him too long to mess things up with Weatherly. Both his reaction to this throughout the novel and the way it started felt different than the way he'd put his foot into it with Suzi (but not completely). The relationships between Bernie and the two women are notably different—which is a relief, too often in situations like this it feels like a duplicate of a previous romance.

A VERY BERNIE CHRISTMAS?
It would be very easy to forget that this is a Christmas/Holiday Themed novel—I did more than once, and I was expressly looking to see how Quinn dealt with it.

However, when the holidays do come up? It's great. There's a Hannukah scene that I just loved, and...well there are a couple of great other scenes about the holidays, but my no-spoiler policy stops me from getting into those.

LANGUAGE CHOICE
This isn't a big deal—I don't want to make a proverbial mountain out of anything. But it struck me that Bernie's language is a bit stronger than usual. I don't want to take the time and do word counts or anything—I'm lazy and I'm not going to buy e-copies just to document this point. This book is still PG-13, but it jumped out at me and struck me as different—and I'm curious about it.

SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT IT'S A WONDERFUL WOOF?
I had a blast with this—there was a time 5 or 6 books ago, that my interest in the series waned a bit—I still enjoyed the books, but they didn't grab me the way the initial novels did. That's gone, and I have to wonder what was wrong with me—Quinn and Chet are as fresh and entertaining now as they were in Dog Gone It.

There's heart, there's excitement, there's humor, there's the devotion that only a dog can have for their human, and you even can even learn a little bit about art history. Throw in a little holiday magic and you've got yourself another winner in this series.

Go read this—which readers of this series probably don't need me to say. But if you haven't read any before, this functions well enough as a jumping-on point, just be prepared to make some time for the previous 11 novels. You're going to want to read them all.

Disclaimer: I received this eARC from Macmillan-Tor/Forge via NetGalley in exchange for this post—thanks to both for this.

I want to be totally fair here and tell you that this was my first Chet and Bernie mystery. It is very cute and easy to read. I liked the idea of the narration or POV being from Chet, the dog. There is humor here, and there is fun. However, I think the “view from a dog’s level” made it difficult for me to concentrate. Now, to begin with this is not a nuclear science book where one must study every word. It’s fun. But still, I felt the flow of the story was somewhat interrupted by Chet the dog and his wandering, mental wanderings that is. If that’s even possible:) My whole feeling may come from the fact that this is my first book of the series. Maybe it just isn’t a stand-alone. It could well be that if you start reading from the beginning of the series what seemed odd to me is very normal and comfortable for the readers. And for this reason, I think I may owe it to the author to try Book 1. I like mysteries. I like dogs. And I like P.I.’s like Bernie Little.

First time reader of this series - but I will definitely be catching up.

Chet definitely stoled heart. The characters are well developed, a good solid, mystery and lots of fun to read! Mix in the holiday bits and it was a really fun book l!

How to make a reader very, very happy - have two books to devour in the same year by one of their favorite authors. (It's happened twice this year) Spencer Quinn brings us a Christmas/holiday themed mystery for Chet and Bernie to tackle. Let the laughter begin as Chet starts telling the tale involving missing persons, homicide, art history and possible buried treasure. Add some progress in the romance department for Bernie and this was a great reading escape.
Bernie Little is a PI and Chet is his four legged partner. In each book Chet narrates and, because he's a smart dog he notices things humans are oblivious to but telling Bernie about it is a set up for laughs. The mysteries are solid and the recurring characters are some of my favorites. This series has a permanent spot on my must be read shelf. Now I have to wait until August 9, 2022 for the next Chet and Bernie mystery, Bark to the Future. My thanks to the publisher Forge Books and to NetGalley for giving me an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

The twelve-book  (and counting) Chet and Bernie series is about a one-hundred+ pound smart and devoted dog (Chet)--who flunked out of K-9 school--and his intensely-moral, highly-competent human (Bernie) who together operate The Little Detective Agency. They solve murders, find lost people, fix what’s broken, and Bernie sometimes falls in love. What makes this series my close-to-favorite detective series of all times is that it’s told from the perspective of Chet. He’s clever, talented, curious, ever-positive in his attitude, and adores his human partner who he sees as perfect. The affection is returned. Chet is generally upbeat even when circumstances are dire which makes these mysteries low-stress despite being dramatic detective stories filled with thrills and intrigue. It doesn't bother me at all that Chet is more cerebral than I expect a dog really is. For example, he understands most of what Bernie says though inferences and allusions befuddle him. But, NYT bestselling author Spencer Quinn is such a good storyteller I willingly suspend my disbelief in that.

Thank you to NetGalley and Forge Books for providing me with a review copy of Quinn's latest in this series, It's a Wonderful Woof. This is another great entry in this indominable series. Quinn has one more coming out August, 2022 which I will be reading as soon as I can!

If you’re looking for a new favorite detective series and you love dogs, this is it.

It's a Wonderful Woof is book 12 in the series from Spencer Quinn.

"It's the Holiday Season and Bernie refers a client to Victor, another PI. Victor disappears and Bernie is asked to look for him. He and Chet follow leads to an old abandoned church with a vague past. Is there some long forgotten treasure hidden there? And where is Victor?"

The best part of the Chet and Bernie books is that it's told in Chet's voice. And Chet is hilarious. We get his full on ramblings with plenty of "SQUIRREL" moments. Lots of clues point you to where this one is going but Chet doesn't know - and that makes it fun. This book is fast -paced with plenty of great bad-guy characters. If you haven't read Chet & Bernie, you are missing out on some fun, hilarious, canine crime-fiction. Haven't you always wondered what your dog is really thinking?

A great addition to the series from Quinn.