Tender Is the Bite

Written by Spencer Quinn

Narrated by Jim Frangione

Spencer Quinn's Tender Is the Bite is a brand new adventure in the New York Times and USA Today bestselling series that Stephen King calls "without a doubt the most original mystery series currently available."
Chet and Bernie are contacted by a terribly scared young woman who seems to want their help. Before she can even tell them her name, she flees in panic. But in that brief meeting Chet sniffs out an important secret about her, a secret at the
heart of the mystery he and Bernie set out to solve.
It's a case with no client and no crime and yet great danger, with the duo facing a powerful politician who has a lot to lose. Their only hope lies with a ferret named Griffie who adores Bernie. Is there room for a ferret in the Chet and Bernie
relationship? That's the challenge Chet faces, the biggest of his career. Hanging in the balance are the lives of two mistreated young women and the future of the whole state.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jul 6, 2021
• ISBN: 9781705020333

Spencer Quinn

Spencer Quinn is the bestselling author of eight Chet and Bernie mystery series, as well as the #1 New York Times bestselling Bowser and Birdie series for middle-grade readers. He lives on Cape Cod with his wife Diana—and dogs Audrey and Pearl. Keep up with him by visiting SpenceQuinn.com.

Reviews for Tender Is the Bite

[Jen Henderson · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

i can't get enough Chet and Bernie. I love these books

[Jennifer Jones · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Delightful as always. Chet and Bernie are an unbeatable team!

[maydacat_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It’s a wonder Bernie can keep Chet in dog biscuits. He has an “almost” client who is so scared that she disappears before they can meet in person. But Chet takes the case anyway. And then a strange man offers him a case that would mean big bucks, but not trusting this mysterious man who talks in circles, Bernie turns it down. More strange disappearances, peculiar happenings, attacks, and a ferret all play a part in this case without a client. No wonder Bernie keeps digging and Chet is confused. Bernie has to figure out how it all connects. It’s a good thing Chet has Bernie’s back in this case - Bernie is going to need some help with this one! Told from Chet’s point of view, this mystery is filled with doggie humor liberally sprinkled over the passages that still contain quite a bit terror. What a great mix!

[montzaleew · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Tender Is the Bite(Chet and Bernie Mystery #11)by Spencer QuinnThis was another entertaining story of Bernie and Chet. The story was full of action and suspense but I didn't like it as much as the other stories. It was entertaining and OK but nothing I would re-read.

[brianewilliams · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a private eye "chase-the-bad-guy" story that begins with a damsel in distress who promptly disappears. Looking for her leads to some local baddies and low lifes to an eventual resolution of sorts. There's also some crooked cops and shady politicians. Along the way to the resolution is the rescue of a kidnapped dog and the search for a missing ferret. It's narrated by the private detective's dog and so events are seen from a dog's point of view. Animal lovers will likely be attracted to this book by its unique perspective, although it's questionable how long this narrative style will hold their attention. Despite that, this is a long running series. There's sufficient backstory to allow it to be read as a standalone. The author's a good storyteller and I'd therefore rate this as an OK read.

[mpensack_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Another delightful mystery featuring private eye Bernie Little and "partner"/narrator, Chet. This latest book involves a shady politician, several missing persons, a missing ferret and a mini golf course. The plot is intricate and Chet is hilarious, as usual. A superb addition to the series! I enjoyed every minute of it.

[liscarey · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Chet and Bernie are back, with a new case--for which, unfortunately, they don't seem to have a client. A scared young woman follows them, then approaches them, and then bolts in terror after Chet, but not Bernie, sees her spot a bumper sticker that someone dropped into the back of the Porsche. A disturbing puzzle, but it's not clear what they can do. Soon, though, there's another scared young woman who also bolts on seeing something, a dead (male) body that disappears, a pet ferret who apparently belongs to one of the young women--who gets stolen out of the back of the Porsche while Chet and Bernie are inside a shop asking questions about the dead man.Amongst all these goings-on, one of their neighbors is aggressively pushing the political campaign of a senator up for reelection. The neighbor also has an unusually extensive "home security system," or perhaps that's "neighborhood surveillance system."The situation doesn't become any clearer when a Ukrainian businessman approaches Bernie with an extremely generous contract offer--spending several months acting as a security consultant for the construction of a new home for a bigger Ukrainian figure, in Hawaii. With gobs of money and lots of time for surfing. Oh, and flying Chet and Bernie there on a private plane so that Chet doesn't have to travel in a crate.What does this have to do with two scared young women and an unexplained, vanished, dead body? Does it have anything to do with them? If it doesn't, how did The Little Detective Agency get plucked out of the phone book for this extremely lucrative job offer?In some ways, this is an even more confusing case than usual, with disturbing things happening even in the police department, and a serious attempt at framing Bernie for the one clearly identifiable crime. Yet there are hints of possible good things as well, in the lives of our favorite dog detective and his human partner.Recommended.I bought this audiobook.

[eyes92c · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Humorous detective work by this devastating duo! Another delightful, dangerous, and confusing mystery with the duo of dudes from the The Little Agency, Bernie Little (hard boiled detective with heart) and Chet the Jet (failed police dog—so it’s rumoured). This time an almost client disappears. Bernie and Chet turn down a big payout and a sojourn in Hawaii because Bernie’s worried about the almost client and didn’t take to Olek the Rumanian hirer. Although Chet does have a thought, “Was it possible that we were walking away from a stack of cold hard cash that Olek was paying us for a job that was all about surfing?” Somehow Chet’s been listening to their accountant. Wow!I get so much pleasure from Chet’s moments of enlightment, his running commentary on all things human, and our taken for granted actions and sayings from his doggie perspective.Like Chet on trains of thought. “Was there a whole world of thoughts out there, just waiting to be found? Whoa! Another thought right there, and on the scary side. I shut the whole thing down.” Huge!Then Chet on actual “thinking”—always nearly tripping over at the vastness of the idea. About now, his head zoned out, Chet usually takes a nap because it’s all too much!And what about when Chet realizes he mostly has no thoughts in his head! “My mind was like the desert? How come I was just finding that out now?”Occasionally I feel like I’m listening to a Steven Wright monologue. Priceless!Almost every page has either a “whoa there!” or hilarious thought. And then there’s the heart stopping moments! Like when Bernie is almost framed, almost killed—indeed there’s heaps of almosts! I must admit that Chet on more than one occasion pulls Bernie’s bacon out of the fire. Although he does get confused when someone mentions bringing home the bacon and he can’t see any. ‘Cause eating is one of his prime delights.Us humans do confuse a dog like Chet sometimes! Well many times really!A comic murder mystery that sets the dogs amongst the ferrets—well this time anyway!Lots of fun!A Macmillan-Tor/Forge ARC via NetGalley Please note: Quotes taken from an advanced reading copy maybe subject to change

[hcnewton · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.---WHAT'S TENDER IS THE BITE ABOUT?A young woman—a frightened young woman—approaches Bernie, she needs help. But before she explains herself, something spooks her and she leaves.Curious, Bernie starts looking for her—and stumbles into the middle of a situation involving stalking, murder, dog-napping, and all sorts of other things. There's an international aspect of this—but it's a very local story. There's a lot to chew on, a lot to talk about—but all of it is in spoiler territory, so I'm going to leave it at that.APPROACHING THE POLITICALThis is the second time in a week that I've said something along those lines, and it's a bit strange. Chet and Bernie keep finding themselves in the neighborhood of a senate election. The case brings the two of them across the path of both candidates (one of them repeatedly). But it's closer to home than that—Bernie's neighbors on either side are very invested in this campaign and their enthusiasm spills over onto the a-political P. I. (or so he tries to be)—at least at one point, one neighbor's has a considerable blow-back on Bernie's investigation. This is a new thing for Quinn to dabble in and he does it well.If you don't catch the parallel between this campaign and the way people are behaving during it and...well, all of American politics right now. Quinn gives us some pretty good commentary to chew on.NON-CHET ANIMAL CHARACTERSSure, we've got Chet's friend, Iggy doing his thing. But we have more animal guest stars. There's a dog—who could be Chet's sister (or niece), and I really hope we get to see more of her.But the big guest star is a ferret. A ferret named Griffie—without Griffie it's hard to say if Bernie'd been able to very far with things. Chet can't stand ferrets, or so he repeatedly says...I'm not sure about Griffie, though.Chet talking about adults, criminals or otherwise, is a lot of fun. Chet talking about kids is simply fantastic. But Chet talking about other animals is a different kind of fun.A LITTLE LIGHT GETS SHED ON CERTAIN EVENTSFor ages now—possibly since the first book, definitely since the second or third—Chet's been alluding to a case that didn't end well. He's given us a little more information here and there about it, but never much. That ends now. Chet tells us some about it. Bernie tells someone else about it. We even get some hints from other characters about it.I don't know why Quinn's decided now is the time to start clueing us in, but I'm so glad he did. We didn't get the whole story—I don't know if we will (and I'm not sure I care)—but we got a lot of it, and that's enough for now.THE TRICK TO THESE BOOKSThis is tied to the above point. The trickiest part about reading Chet as a narrator is that he doesn't understand what he's telling you, and because of that he leaves a lot out. He's the best kind of unreliable narrator—he's well-intentioned and honest, he believes what he's telling us and he thinks he's giving us all the information.What that means for the reader is that we have to think a little more about what he's saying, we have to do almost as much detective work as Bernie to understand what's really going on. Which is just so much fun, really. Sure, you might spend a couple of chapters with the wrong idea, but Quinn doesn't let you keep the wrong idea for long.I need to spend time writing about this every time I talk about a Chet and Bernie book—I need to do better at this, but it's hard. If I could describe it better, I'd probably get paid to do this stuff.SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT TENDER IS THE BITE?Yes, Quinn gave us a great pair of characters that we love in Chet and Bernie. He gives us a good story. He plays with the unreliable narrator to reveal what he really wants to say. Put it all together and he gives us another great read in one of the most reliably satisfying series in print.Read this one. If this is your first time with Chet and Bernie, go back and read the rest after it. You'll be glad you did.

[jetangen4571 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

dog, private-investigators, law-enforcement, murder, political-corruption, action, situational-humor, verbal-humor, ferret*****First Chet and Bernie are being tailed, then they are tailing the one who was tailing them! If you've never had a K-9 failure tell you about a difficult case he and his partner PI Bernie Little survived, you've missed a lot! Chet tells all from his own unique perspective. This includes a ferret, some Ukrainians, a lot of liars, missing persons and more. There are plot twists and red herrings, but all of the characters are engaging, interesting, and occasionally evil. Just not the good guys, sometimes they are a bit clueless, but never evil. A great series and full of laughs! And each is capable of being stand alone.I requested and received a free temporary ebook copy from Macmillan-Tor/Forge Forge Books via NetGalley. Thank you!