A reader asked for an excerpt from RAIDERS OF THE LOST BARK, the next Chet and Bernie mystery (preorderable!) Here’s one I hope is long enough but not too long.

Sometimes Iggy can surprise you in a good way. He hadn’t even reached the playground! Halfway down the next block he’d come upon an overturned trash can, at least that was what he wanted you to believe. But he knew and I knew the real story. By now he’d heard me coming and all that about the trash barrel got communicated in the first look we exchanged. Iggy took off at once, his long ears flat against the sides of his head, his stubby tail a blur, his stubby legs also a blur. And there’s no leaving out the hot dog hanging from the side of his mouth.

Here’s the story about all those blurs. Although Iggy appears to be speeding along amazingly fast, if you check the actual ground he covers it’s not much. He moves fast and runs slow, if that makes any sense. Horses, the real good ones, are kind of the opposite. I’ve run down real good horses in my time—Mingo, for example, in a case we have no time for now—so Iggy’s chances of getting away from me are zip. But he always tries! That’s just one of the things I love about Iggy.