Spencer Quinn. Ruff vs. Fluff. Scholastic, 2019.

Readers may recognize the author Spencer Quinn who writes the very enjoyable Chet and Bernie mysteries—of which we have reviewed many. Ruff vs. Fluff is Chet and Bernie for the younger set. This is probably a bit younger than YA, but let’s say late elementary through middle school.

Harmony and Bro are twins, brother and sister, whose mother owns an inn in the Northeast not too far from the Canadian border. The state is not specified, but it sounds like Vermont. (It is only giving away a little by noting Vermont has a mountain pass called Smugglers’ Notch.)

There is a mystery. And like the Chet and Bernie stories, the story is told from the animal’s point of view. Only in this case, there are two animals, both residents of the Blackberry Hill Inn.

Chapters are told by Archie the mutt and Queenie the cat. Quinn’s readers may easily catch onto Archie’s point of view. He has a slightly different personality than Chet—for one thing, no one would ever call Archie the Jet—but he is all dog like Chet. He spends a lot of time reminiscing about food, especially bacon. Oh, and like Bernie’s Little Detective Agency, the inn is having financial problems.

Queenie the cat’s persona makes us realize that Quinn understands cats also. Queenie sees herself as queen indeed. She spends a lot of time looking down from the heights of the grandfather clock in the inn. She is saying with the poet that she is monarch of all she surveys. At one point when someone tells the cat, “It’s not about you,” Queenie thinks, “Not about me? What an odd remark!” Archie has all kinds of weaknesses and lacks any kind of self-control, a quality which Queenie despises in him. Nevertheless, Queenie does have at least one weakness herself: catnip.

The only person currently staying at the inn is interested in an old logging trail that no one uses any more on a nearby mountain. When Alex LeMaire, the customer, does not return to the inn after a day and a night, Harmony and Archie go looking for him. They find him, but he is dead. The sheriff can tell it is murder. The sheriff immediately arrests their cousin Matty, the best guide in the region. No one other than the sheriff believes Matty could have done it, but what can they do? Matty is probably the only local who would know where to go on the mountain. Of course, Archie finds him because he can trace his scent.

There are other freaky goings-on. Several people, both locals and strangers, seem interested in a postcard from the 1930s. It is written to another LeMaire, but it just has a one-letter message. And then there’s an old trail map stolen from the public library.

The son of one of the locals interested in the postcard has gotten into a fight with Bro while they are playing hockey. Being hockey, the coach lets them fight it out, but that complicates things as well. Archie, by the way, likes hockey because the pucks are great to carry and chew. But he cannot understand why they call the team the Tigers. Tigers are cats, and everyone knows cats are not team players. Why didn’t they call them the dogs? (Connecticut has an AHL hockey team called the Wolf Pack. Archie would understand that.)

The narrators have a tale telling flair which makes the readers smile and laugh. But Ruff vs. Fluff is a serious mystery that kids will enjoy—and maybe learn a bit of American history from the last century as well.