The Alexander McCall Smith Primer

In the Swedish criminal justice system, certain cases are considered especially strange and difficult, in Malmö, the dedicated detectives who investigate these crimes are members of an elite squad known as the Sensitive Crimes Division. This new series from Alexander McCall Smith is a warm and witty send-up of Scandinavian crime. Equal parts hilarious, heartening, and intriguing, the Detective Varg series is a tour de farce from a true master.

The residents of 44 Scotland Street and the city of Edinburgh itself come to vivid life in Alexander McCall Smith’s gently satirical, wonderfully perceptive serial novels, with five-year-old prodigy Bertie Pollock at the center of it all. In the latest book in the series,  summer has come to Scotland Street. The long days have prompted its denizens to engage in flights of fancy. Once again, Scotland Street teems with the daily triumphs and challenges of those who call it home, and provides a warm, wise, and witty chronicle of the affairs in this corner of the world.

With his Paul Stuart series, Alexander McCall Smith takes us into the often less-than-glamorous life of a food writer. Paul Stuart spends his days traveling through Europe tasting delicious food and savoring fine wines. It should be a life of ease, yet somehow Paul always seems to find himself embroiled in affairs both local and of the heart, often at the expense of whatever book he is meant to be writing. It’s a recipe for drama, spiced with McCall Smith’s incomparable wit and charm.

The Isabel Dalhousie series features an insatiably curious professional philosopher and amateur sleuth, one of fiction’s most richly developed women detectives. Whether she is investigating a case or a problem of philosophy, the indefatigable Isabel is always ready to pursue the answers to all of life’s questions, large and small. In The Quiet Side of Passion, Isabel finds herself grappling with ethically-complex matters of the heart as she tries to juggle her responsibilities to friends, family, and the philosophical community.

Val Eliot is working on an English farm during the war when she meets Mike, a U.S. Air Force pilot stationed nearby. The two become close, and after Val rescues a border collie named Peter Woodhouse, who is being mistreated by his owner, she realizes the dog would actually be safer with Mike. Soon Peter Woodhouse settles into his new home on the air force base, and Val and Mike fall deeply in love. But when a disaster jeopardizes the future of them all, Peter Woodhouse brings Ubi, a German corporal, into their orbit, sparking a friendship that comes with great risk but carries with it the richest of rewards.

The summer after university, Emma Woodhouse returns home to live with her widowed father and launch her interior design business. Apart from cultivating grand career plans and managing her father’s hypochondria, Emma busies herself with the two things she does best: matchmaking and offering advice on everything from texting etiquette to first date destinations. Carriages have been replaced by Mini Coopers and cups of tea by cappuccinos, but Alexander McCall Smith’s sparkling satire and cozy sensibility are the perfect match for Jane Austen’s beloved tale.

Inspired by vintage photographs, this collection featuring five lyrical stories capture the surprising intersections of love and friendship that alter life’s journeys.

The School Ship Tobermory series is a middle-grade rip-roaring adventure on the high seas. In this third and final installment, the same loveable cast and crew sail to new locales in Australia with adventures that don’t disappoint.

In this beloved middle-grade tale, Freddie Mole loves his family, but they struggle day to day to make ends meet. Then Freddie finds out about a job opening at a local circus–and he can’t believe his luck when he is hired. At the circus, Freddie sweeps and cleans and is praised for his work. One thing leads to another, and he’s asked to be understudy for some of the acts. The trapeze stunts are daunting enough–can Freddie face the lion’s cage?