Woof
Author: Spencer Quinn
Publisher: Scholastic Press
ISBN-10: 0-545-64331-7
ISBN-13: 978-0-545-64331-3
Spencer Quinn (real name: Peter Abrahams) started the New York Times-bestselling “Chet and Bernie” humorous mystery series for Atria Books in 2009, up to eight mostly-annual books currently. They are narrated by Chet, the canine partner of Bernie Little, the human half of the Little Detective Agency. The “Chet and Bernie” series stands out from the several series of talking-cat mysteries by the fact that Chet appears as a “real dog” who just happens to talk to the reader. He has almost no attention span; he almost always is unaware of what is really going on around him; he is food-oriented; he just considers himself to be Bernie’s best friend and he does what he thinks Bernie wants – which is enough to solve their cases.
Now Quinn has started the very similar “Bowser and Birdie” series for Scholastic Press with “Woof”, the first novel. The main difference is in the setting and the human cast. Birdie Gaux is an eleven-year-old girl who adopts Bowser from a dog pound as a birthday present. Birdie lives with her grandmother at the run-down Gaux Family Fish and Bait shop in the tiny Louisiana coastal town of St. Roch. Birdie and Grammy return with Bowser to find that Black Jack, their shop’s prize mounted marlin, has been stolen. Birdie and Grammy suspect Steve Straker, the ruthless owner of St. Roch’s other fishing-and swamp-tours shop; much richer but he doesn’t like any competition. But the local sheriff thinks that they’re making it up in an attempt to blacken Straker’s reputation, so Birdie and Bowser have to investigate alone. The clues they find indicate both that Straker may be innocent, and that the mystery is much more serious than a missing stuffed fish – maybe even deadly.
The mystery in “Woof” is just an excuse for what readers really want: Bowser’s first-paw narration. Bowser is just Chet under a different name. He’s devoted to Birdie who rescued him from the pound; he’ll do anything for her – if he can understand what she wants.
“Birdie unclipped the leash and hung it on a wall hook, then got a bowl from a cupboard and started filling it at the sink. While all that was going on, I followed an interesting smell over to a trash barrel by the door. It had an odd kind of swinging plastic top that really didn’t keep you from sticking your head in the barrel if you suddenly wanted to do that very badly, which I did.
“The next moment I’d snagged practically a whole burger, tossed away for no reason I could think of since it was still perfectly good. I made quick work of it, and was just standing by the trash barrel doing nothing in particular when Birdie came over with the water bowl. ‘You weren’t poking around in the trash, by any chance?’ she said, setting the bowl at my feet.
“Nope. Not me. I sat nice and still, my behavior as good as anyone would want, or better.” (pgs. 34-35)
In addition to the mystery, and meeting Birdie’s friends and neighbors in St. Roch, there are many scenes of bayou and swamp life, from fish and birds to giant alligators. The “Chet and Bernie” series is set in many locations around America since Bernie’s cases take him and Chet all over the country, but since Birdie is a young girl, the “Bowser and Birdie” series will likely remain in the Deep South.
“Woof” is a $16.99 hardcover book, with a $9.00 Kindle edition and a $14.95 audio version.
