Reading 44 Scotland Street

Welcome to 44 Scotland Street, home to some of Edinburgh's most colorful characters. There's Pat, a twenty-year-old who has recently moved into a flat with Bruce, an athletic young man with a keen awareness of his own appearance. Their neighbor, Domenica, is an eccentric and insightful widow. In the flat below are Irene and her appealing son Bertie, who is the victim of his mother’s desire for him to learn the saxophone and italian–all at the tender age of five.

Love triangles, a lost painting, intriguing new friends, and an encounter with a famous Scottish crime writer are just a few of the ingredients that add to this delightful and witty portrait of Edinburgh society, which was first published as a serial in The Scotsman newspaper.

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Like Smith's bestselling Botswana mysteries, this book—comprising 110 sections, originally serialized in the Scotsman, that drolly chronicle the lives of residents in an Edinburgh boarding house—is episodic, amusing and peopled with characters both endearing and benignly problematic. Pat, 21, is on her second "gap year" (her first yearlong break from her studies was such a flop she refuses to discuss it), employed at a minor art gallery and newly settled at the eponymous address, where she admires vain flatmate Bruce and befriends neighbor Domenica. A low-level mystery develops about a possibly valuable painting that Pat discovers, proceeds to lose and then finds in the unlikely possession of Ian Rankin, whose bestselling mysteries celebrate the dark side of Edinburgh just as Smith's explore the (mostly) sunny side. The possibility of romance, the ongoing ups and downs of the large, well-drawn cast of characters, the intricate plot and the way Smith nimbly jumps from situation to situation and POV to POV—he was charged, after all, with keeping his newspaper readers both momentarily satisfied and eager for the next installment—works beautifully in book form. No doubt Smith's fans will clamor for more about 44 Scotland Street, and given the author's celebrated productivity, he'll probably give them what they want. Agent, Robin Straus. (June)
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From Bookmarks Magazine

Inspired by Armistead Maupin’s serialized San Francisco-based Tales of the City, McCall Smith has successfully incorporated snippets of Bohemian Edinburgh life into 44 Scotland Street. He lends the same insights and sensibilities to these colorful vignettes as he does to his bestselling No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, set in Botswana: an understated intelligence, a deep human compassion, and lighthearted romance and mystery. Likeable and quirky characters, from a pushy mother and bookish neighbor to real-life walk-ons, populate the gentle satire. For those who don’t read The Scotsman, not to worry: there’s a second volume in the works.