To Fetch a Thief-Spencer Quinn

To Fetch a Thief
Spencer Quinn
Atria, Sep 28 2010, $25.00
ISBN: 9781439157077

Peanut the elephant and his handler-tamer Uri DeLeath disappear from the Drummond Family Traveling Circus. Uri's partner Popo the clown fears the worst. Attending the circus are Bernie Little and his son. When Peanut the star fails to show up, Bernie’s son Charlie asks his dad of the Little Detective Agency to investigate. They meet Popo who hires Bernie to find Uri and peanut as the cops insist the elephant trainer just quit.

Bernie and his partner Chet the canine follow the trail mostly by the dog sniffing for clues. They receive some help from Police Sergeant Rick Torres, but for the most part the cops say case closed. When the private detective finds the body of Uri, who died from the bite of an African puff adder, the cops proclaim it an accident. The sleuths think otherwise and continue their quest to find the elephant abductors.

The latest Chet and Bernie Little Detective mystery (see Dog On It and Thereby Hangs a Tail) is a witty investigative tale of the tail. The case is fun follow as the antics of Chet serving as the lead sleuth are amusing. Yet what makes this series superb is that with all the jocularity, there remains an underlying serious tense inquiry as the mystery is top of the line.

Harriet Klausner