Mystery is one of the main themes of middle grade novels, alongside fantasy and school stories. From The Westing Game and From The Mixed Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler to newer titles like the Enola Holmes series, detectives have great appeal to young readers—and adult readers older if we're being honest. Chris the Dog Detective, one of four launch titles for Yen Press's middle grade light novel imprint, delves into some of the trends in middle grade mystery that make it so appealing, chief among them the intelligent animal in its title. Combining the ever-appealing dog character with a plucky little detective, Detective Shiba Inu follows the trail of stolen gems! is the strongest product among the original mid-level light novels.
Despite what the title and cover might make you think, Chris is not a talking dog who solves crimes with a human tagalong. The story is much more grounded in reality than that: Chris, short for Christie, is a trained police dog, chosen despite his breed for his extraordinary talent. (The story mentions that the more typical police dogs are German Shepherds and Labrador Retrievers, although I believe the Belgian Malinois is the breed of choice in many places.) Chris was trained by a trainer. his trainer, a detective named Kobayashi, but the first time they train them. However, something goes wrong—Kobayashi tells Chris to run before he disappears, and a traumatic encounter with a bee leaves Chris afraid of flying insects. Between these two problems, Chris retired and a dog trainer gave him to his nephew.
So the story begins with Chris starting his life as a normal pet, more or less. Hinata, the main character of the series and Chris's new owner, is a shy 5th grader who only really interacts with her friend Mayuka, a loud and lively girl. Hinata's mother is a veterinarian and his father is a groomer, but even so, he has never had a pet of his own; In a difficult situation, his parents told him that he could not have one because it might cause problems for the clinic. This is the strangest element of the story, as every veterinarian and veterinary technician I know has their own variety of animals, and it leaves me out of the story every time it comes up. presently.
Luckily, this is a mystery, and that part of the book was done very well. The plot has at least two parts: a small local jewelry store is robbed and a college student that Hinata and Mayuka know is acting strangely. When the kids find a lost headphone near a crime scene, they notice Chris sniffing it interestingly and realize he can return it to its owner. When they tell him to follow its scent, they go to university student Takaki's apartment, where they find his behavior odd. Before they know what they are doing, they find themselves drawn into the correlation between Takaki's behavior and the ransacked store, and are even more impressed when they begin to realize that this case may regarding the disappearance of Chris's original partner.
The writing is strong and doesn't condescend to its supposed audience of eight- to twelve-year-olds (the typical middle-class demographic), and there are some moments of real danger. Hinata and Mayuka balance each other out very well, and when they do something stupid—like get into a strange car—they are completely aware of it. That doesn't stop them, but at least they know they should do something different, like go to their neighborhood police station, which makes things both fun and realistic. The pace reflects this, never slowing down for too long but also not rushing forward in an incredibly tense sprint. Hinata has time to think and apply the knowledge he learned from his police dog trainer grandfather. Mayuka is the more reckless member of the team, but that balances out Hinata's reserve very well, and she respects his ability to think things through and put the pieces together, even if she sometimes wishes you do it faster. For his part, Chris is never shown to be anything other than a very smart good dog, which keeps the story from feeling too confusing for its own good, which is always the case. a risk in animal detective stories, especially for this and the chapter book era. group.
The first episode of Dog Detective Chris was a good one. It fits more comfortably into the middle-class demographic than some of the other titles in this line and the characters are well-written while the mystery is intriguing and solid. It also has a very natural opening to the next novel, which begins to show that everything is more connected than anyone first thought. Author Tomoko Tabe has done a great job of providing information about dogs-both breed-wise and general care-and this will appeal to small dogs and mystery lovers with ease. And it's hugely enjoyable as an adult reader, with some solid Easter eggs, mainly named – Christie for Agatha Christie and Kobayashi from Edogawa Ranpo's Akechi Kogoro series; Kobayashi is the head of Akechi's version of the Baker Street Irregulars. This is easy to recommend to fans of light detective stories of all ages – in my opinion, that's the sign of a good children's book.