Paw and Order

by Spencer Quinn
Hennepin County Library audiobook 8 CDs

Published: 2014
read by Jim Frangione
genre: murder mystery

Told from the canine point of view, this book was quite amusing! Ann and I listened to it on our eclipse road trip. The murder mystery part, with Bernie and his dog Chet, was fine but not extraordinary. Chet's perspective was wonderful! I want to go through a print version and find the nuggets of wisdom from a dog's-eye perspective. I didn't jot any of them down, but there were some excellent lines!

The humor of how dogs see the world - or rather, smell and hear it, was very engaging. My notes say "Grin. Dog perspective." It was everything from a fascination with toilets to Bernie saying to a "perp" that he would "toss him a bone" - and Chet waiting to catch the bone. It got a little bit too repetitive and irritating, but was mostly fun. Chet referred to "The Nation Within" when he talked about dogs.

This is the seventh book in a series, but it worked as a stand-alone. I may read other books in the series . . . in print, so I can write down the dog wisdom. (Though Frangione's vocal work was excellent.)

 

(Above published 9.6.2017. Below added 3.5.2021.)

 

Now that I've started with book one of the series and gotten back to this title, I wanted to add a few notes. 

 

I think I like the audio versions better than the print version. Not sure why, but kudos to Frangione for his vocal work! My new car doesn't have a CD player, so I listen in my sewing studio.

 

I played the part for Louie where Chet talks about why Halloween is his least favorite holiday. Such a fun part of the story! It's on disc 1, track 14 at about the four minute mark if you're interested.  

I went back to a section that caught my attention so I could transcribe. Bernie Little is talking about the Civil War and his family's history.

". . . Littles fought on both sides. Military family goin' way back - kind of shapes your outlook on life - a curse and a blessing. Suppose we'd been - I don't know - pharmacists, say, or shoemakers."

This struck me because I think we forget sometimes that our life experiences and family perspectives color how we see situations. Teachers, farmers, business people, military . . . this definitely shapes your outlook on life!

Disc 6, Track 13, about 1:00 . . . I made note of this because it also struck me. Bernie asks Chet, "Do you want to know what people want most?" Chet tries to think "lunch" as hard as possible to see if he can persuade Bernie with his mind to get food.

"Right away I started to think about lunch and only lunch, with all the power in my mind."

"They want to know, " Bernie said, "that everything's going to be all right. And the person who most makes them feel that is the one who, for example, gets elected President."

Again, the dog perspective is food. So true! But Bernie's answer really shines a light for me on what some of the trauma of the Trump Presidency was about. If the leader lies, stirs up anger, and otherwise makes you question whether or not things will be all right . . . then we are not getting what we want.

There are still things about these books I don't like that much, but they are clever and fun. I'll keep "reading" them!