Paw and Order

Paw and Order by Spencer Quinn (2014) 304 pages

Chet is a 120 pound dog, a police academy dropout who is smart as a whip and totally dedicated to Bernie Little. Bernie is a former police officer and Army captain who'd been injured in Iraq. Now the two make up the Little Detective Agency. One of Chet's most endearing traits is how he hard he tries to translate what Bernie and other people say (often taking their words literally), and what Chet notices as he meets various people in the story and how he deciphers their gestures and smells.

After wrapping up a job in Louisiana, Bernie decides to aim his old Porsche towards Washington D.C., to surprise Susie, his girlfriend who now works for the Washington Post. When they arrive at Susie's, they see Eben St. John leaving Susie's place, which makes Bernie jealous, even though Susie says Eben is a source for a story she's working on. When Susie finds Eben dead in his office the next day, Bernie is a suspect for a time. As Bernie, Chet and Susie try to solve the murder, they need to piece together Washington D.C. presidential politics and foreign interest in the results. (Sound familiar?) This is a fast-moving story and it's a nice change of pace to hear it from Chet's point of view.