Spencer Quinn. It’s a Wonderful Woof. Forge, 2021.

Since the English Plus Language Blog became primarily a place for book reviews, this is the sixteenth Chet and Bernie book we have reviewed. That includes a few that are only available on Kindle. It appears, then, we have read more books by Spencer Quinn than any other single author on this blog, even not including the YA title we just reviewed.

It’s a Wonderful Woof takes its title from a popular Christmas film. Unlike most of Quinn’s other titles, the title actually has a little connection with its namesake. It’s a Wonderful Woof, like It’s a Wonderful Life, takes place at Christmas time.

Like the other Chet and Bernie stories, we get the story from Chet the dog’s perspective. Because of his acute senses, Chet always notices things that get by Bernie Little of the Little Detective Agency in “the Valley” in Arizona. As has been the case with a few other tales, part of the story involves another private detective.

Victor Klovsky specializes in cybercrime and research. When Bernie is asked about taking on a client who seems interested in art history, Bernie refers this man with a Eastern European accent to Victor. The problem is that a few days later Victor has disappeared. Victor lives with his mother, and his mother asks Bernie to help find Victor.

The plot gets quite complicated. Bernie’s tracking takes him to many different places. Other stories have told us about Livia’s brothel. Bernie has to make a stop there for information to find out that the employee who may know something about Victor no longer works for Livia.

He also has to make a stop at an art dealer and an art museum. He finds the name of the man who may have hired Victor to find out that the man recently moved from the poor side of town to an exclusive new development. He has to track down a retired priest who lives by himself in a trailer park. He investigates a couple of gym clubs.

At one point he goes up into the mountains where Chet for the first time experiences snow. (I recall a visit to San Diego where I was told that people there could tell how cold it was by how low in elevation the snow came. I think it came to about 3,000 feet when I was there in February. I was told 1,500 feet was serious.)

Everything, though, seems to point to Nuestra Señora de los Saguaros, an old mission said to have first been established in the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century. The church had closed years before, and the property had been recently auctioned off. The first time Bernie and Chet go there, they meet Johanna who identifies herself as an archaeologist hired by the buyers of the property.

As Bernie is trying to figure out a connection between and among all these parties and what they know about the missing Victor, he seeks some help from an art professor at the local college. The professor had represented a group that was unsuccessful in its bid for the property. There appears to be some value to the rundown but baroque style church. The professor recently went on sabbatical, but who should Bernie find at the professor’s office but Johanna. Whom was she really representing?

It turns out that the mission itself has a legend connected with it about the “false penitent” who may have cursed the property. He was said to be from southern Italy, which was ruled by Spain at the time the mission was established. Some businessmen with connections to Spain and Italy, including a third private eye, come to the Valley and express an interest in Nuestra Señora. The detective claims to be working for the Prado, the famous Madrid art museum.

The reader may guess that businessmen from southern Italy may be legitimate businessmen—or something else. It may be unfair stereotyping, but one of their names is Vito…Not only is it complicated, but it gets pretty hairy.

Readers know that Bernie has not had great luck with women. He is divorced, and his son Charlie lives with his ex-wife and her new husband. His girlfriend Suzie from many of the books ends up marrying someone else. And in It’s a Wonderful Woof, Bernie sticks his foot in his mouth while with his latest girlfriend, Weatherly, who now ignores his phone calls. He just can’t seem to win.

Mysteries usually surprise us, and this one is complicated enough that most readers will be caught up in it. Still, I was happy to note a clue early in the story that Bernie and Chet would overlook until much later. The names of a number of Renaissance masters appear in the story including Titian, Tintoretto, and Caravaggio.

The ending—one could say the denouement or epilogue—of It’s a Wonderful Woof also has echoes of It’s a Wonderful Life. We know that Bernie often has trouble making ends meet, but here we see a different side of him. Yes, Chet’s canine narrative simplicity is often joyful, but here we see a joyful side of Bernie as well: one we usually miss, but perhaps we begin to understand.

Esmé, the smartest kid in Charlie’s fourth grade class, says Christmas really did not happen. When Charlie asks his father about it, Bernie replies, “I wouldn’t count it out.” Happy holidays!

Links to other Chet and Bernie reviews on the English Plus Language Blog:
Bark to the Future
Tender is the Bite
Of Mutts and Men
4 Chet and Bernie Books
The Sound and the Furry
Paw and Order
3 Chet and Bernie Mysteries
A Fistful of Collars
Chet and Bernie Mysteries (3)
Up On the Woof Top