Santa 365 by Spencer Quinn

Published by Atria Books on November 24, 2015

Santa 365 is a small Christmas offering from Spencer Quinn, the pseudonymous author of the Chet and Bernie novels. This short story takes place at some point before The Dog Who Knew Too Much but, as Quinn points out, the order in which the Chet and Bernie books are read doesn’t matter much. Bernie’s life changes a bit as the series progresses but Chet is always Chet.

As background to the story, Chet tells us that he once grabbed a fellow named Plumpy Bonaparte by the pants leg, allowing Bernie to send him to jail for running a Ponzi scheme. Now Plumpy is out and claims to have reformed, having started a business called Santa 365.

The story involves Bernie’s interaction with Santa 365. Bernie behaves in a way that is very unlike Bernie, both in his interaction with Plumpy and later by allowing (almost inviting) himself to be victimized by another criminal. Maybe Christmas has made Bernie naively trusting (if not downright foolish), but I thought Bernie’s out-of-character behavior made the story hard to swallow.

Of course, Chet is always fun, but this is a very short story, which limits the amount of amusing commentary that Chet is able to provide. There’s nothing new or fresh from Chet which, combined with a less-than-memorable plot, makes this story a disappointing entry in the Chet and Bernie series.

NOT RECOMMENDED