44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith (2004)

I read some of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series by McCall Smith and thoroughly enjoyed them, but wasn't as thrilled by the couple of other books I picked up by him. A colleague suggested this series and it looks like it will be fun.

This book was written as a daily serial in a Scottish newspaper, so the chapters are nice and short. The characters start out with some of the people living at the address in the title and then branch out to the people at their jobs, their friends and family. All the places in the book are real, and even some of the characters are actual people that gave the author the right to portray them in this series. I realize I know squat about the Scots, as none of the writers or artists mentioned ring a bell. So at least I will learn something about Scotland, Edinburgh and the Scots. In this book our fictional characters go to meet Ian Rankin, a real life famous Scottish crime writer.

Pat is a young woman in her second gap year, still finding herself, who rents a room in 44 Scotland Street in an apartment inhabited by narcissistic Bruce, who works as a building inspector. Pat lands a part time job in an art gallery run by rich and feckless Matthew. Much of the story-line centers around a possibly valuable painting. Dominica is an eccentric widow, who lives at 44 S. St. and is one of the more colorful characters and has interesting friends. Six year old Bertie lives in the building with his mom Irene, who is out to make him super child. Looking at the titles in the series, looks like we will be following Bertie's development. We also meet Bruce's bosses and the boss' daughter.