His entry begins:I recently submerged myself in Rick Atkinson’s three-part history of the fighting in World War Two. For some reason I read the books in reverse chronological order – The Guns at Last Light, The Day of Battle, An Army at Dawn. That ended up making the outcome seem inevitable, which it most certainly was not – the contrast between our mainly amateur warriors and Hitler’s professionals was huge, especially at first. The detailed recounting of so many campaigns gets a little tedious at times, but diary excerpts and letters home from the common soldiers and sailors just shine. I still call my dad every Veterans Day to thank him for his service (in the U.S. Navy).About Paw and Order, from the publisher:
He commanded a sub chaser in the Atlantic at the age of twenty-one, and that kind of thing wasn’t...[read on]
In the seventh book in the brilliant New York Times bestselling mystery series, canine narrator Chet and P.I. Bernie journey to Washington, DC, and the dog-eat-dog world of our nation’s capital.Visit Chet the Dog's blog and Facebook page, and Peter Abrahams's website.
Stephen King has called Chet “a canine Sam Spade full of joie de vivre.” Robert B. Parker dubbed Spencer Quinn’s writing “major league prose.” Now the beloved team returns in another suspenseful novel that finds Chet sniffing around the capital city and using his street smarts to uncover a devilish plot.
Chet and Bernie pay a visit to Bernie’s girlfriend, Suzie Sanchez, a crack reporter living in far-off Washington, DC. She’s working on a big story she can’t talk about, but when hersource, a mysterious Brit with possible intelligence connections, runs into trouble of the worst kind, Bernie suddenly finds himself under arrest.
Meanwhile Chet gets to know a powerful DC operative who may or may not have the goods on an ambitious politician. Soon Chet and Bernie are sucked into an international conspiracy, battling unfamiliar forces under the blinking red eyes of a strange bird that Chet notices from the get-go but seems to have slipped by everybody else. Most menacing of all is Barnum, a guinea pig with the fate of the nation in his tiny paws.
As Harry Truman famously quipped, “If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.” Too bad he didn’t get to meet Chet!
The Page 69 Test: Spencer Quinn's The Dog Who Knew Too Much.
Coffee with a Canine: Peter Abrahams and Audrey (September 2011).
Coffee with a Canine: Peter Abrahams and Pearl (August 2012).
The Page 69 Test: Paw and Order.
Writers Read: Spencer Quinn.
--Marshal Zeringue
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