Santa 365 by Spencer Quinn Read Free Book Online

under the balloons. Members of the nation within lay in the shade, their tails still.
    After that we drove around the Valley, handing out wads of cash to everyone on the list. We got hugged and patted and kissed, and I chowed down on snacks out the yingyang. And when it was all over, we still had our ten percent! Bernie counted up the money. “Over ninety grand here, big guy.” He separated it into two stacks, one big, one little. Then we drove back to Ocotillo Springs, went to the fundraiser and handed the woman the big stack. Were we still rich? I thought so.
    Some time later, we realized we’d forgotten all about Elrood. We hurried back to Plumpy’s wrecked crib, but found that Elrood was already gone. The duct tape was neatly in place, not torn or twisted, like it was still confining an invisible perp. You see everything in this business.
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    We used the little stack to throw another Christmas party. Would you believe it? This Christmas party was even better than the first one! We had live music, for one thing. Rick’s uncle Hector came.Uncle Hector was a handsome older dude with a string tie. He was great at a very strange sort of dance called the cha-cha. It turned out that the cha-cha was Bernie’s mom’s favorite dance. Cha-cha went on all night long. Were we still rich? I thought so.

SCENTS AND SENSIBILITY
    â€œ We hopped in the Porsche, me in the shotgun seat, Bernie behind the wheel, always our arrangement, with the exception of one time I’d rather forget when we got it reversed. Usually I’m brilliant at forgetting, so why couldn’t I forget that particular episode? Let’s drop the whole subject. What to remember is that riding shotgun in the Porsche just happens to be my favorite thing in the whole world. Our ride’s been a Porsche ever since the start of the Little Detective Agency, which had to be when I joined up, unless I was missing something.”
    Loyal, brave, and fearless, Chet (the canine companion to private investigator Bernie Little) doesn’t miss much, even if he can’t always remember what it is that he knows. In the eighth book in this bestselling, beloved mystery series, Bernie and Chet return home from a long road trip to find themselves in an unusually prickly situation. First, Bernie’s wall safe—normally hidden behind the waterfall picture in the office—is gone, and with it Bernie’s grandfather’s watch, their most valuable possession. And next door, old Mr. Parsons is under investigation for being in possession of a saguaro cactus illegally transplanted from the desert. Bernie and Chet go deep into the wild to investigate. Is it possible that such a lovely old couple have a secret in their past?
    Chet and Bernie discover bad things going on in the desert, far worse than cactus smuggling, and all connected to a strange but innocent-seeming desert music festival called Cactus Man. They unearth clues that take them back to a long-ago kidnapping where the ransom money disappeared even though the kidnappers were caught. Stirring up the past brings our detective duo to the attention of a ruthless and charismatic criminal with a cult following, a criminal who sees at once what Chet and Bernie mean to each other and knows how to exploit it.
    Chet and Bernie are in top form as they face real danger in their own backyard, take on some seriously bad dudes in an unforgiving environment, and discover unexpected truths about their own natures.

Loved Santa 365 ?
    Buy Spencer Quinn’s Scents and Sensibility, currently available from Atria Books.

    Scents and Sensibility
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    The Spencer Quinn Reader's Companion
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About the Author
    Randi Baird
    Spencer Quinn is the author of seven previous bestselling Chet and Bernie mystery novels. He lives on Cape Cod with his dogs,