Alexander McCall Smith
Author
Series
Isabel Dalhousie mysteries volume 3
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Description
"The key to contentment in the Scottish climate is the right attitude to rain - just as in life the key to happiness lies in making the best of what you have. But in her plain-speaking housekeeper Grace's opinion, Isabel Dalhousie - wealthy, attractive, kind and lonely - does not make the best of what she has; in Isabel's life there is too much thought and not enough action." "Bruised early in love by her faithless Irish husband, Isabel Dalhousie...
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Corduroy mansions volume 3
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Description
"It's back to Corduroy Mansions--the slightly dilapidated but well-lived-in mansion block in London's hip Pimlico neighborhood--for the third installment in Alexander McCall Smith's newest popular series. There's never a dull moment for the residents of Corduroy Mansions: Berthea Snark is still at work on her scathing biography of the only loathsome Liberal Democrat member of Parliament--her own son, Oedipus; literary agents Rupert Porter and Barbara...
Author
Series
Pub. Date
[2021]
Description
"Perplexing, unfathomable, and perhaps unimportant, the cases that Malmo's Department of Sensitive Crimes take on will test them to their limits. Life--and crime--is not always as it seems for Ulf Varg and the other fearless detectives in Malmo's Department of Sensitive Crimes. There are always surprising new cases to take on, and the latest batch is no exception. And that's not to mention Ulf's struggle to contain his feelings for his colleague Anna...
Author
Series
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Description
A couple who are old friends of Isabel Dalhousie's ask for her help in a rather tricky situation: A successor is being sought for the headmaster position at their alma mater. The board has four final candidates but has received an anonymous letter alleging that one of them has a very serious skeleton in the closet. Could Isabel discreetly look into it?
Author
Series
Isabel Dalhousie mysteries volume 2
Pub. Date
[2005]
Accelerated Reader
IL: UG - BL: 5.8 - AR Pts: 11
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Description
When Isabel's niece, Cat, asks Isabel to run her delicatessen while she attends a wedding in Italy, Isabel meets a man with a most interesting problem. He recently had a heart transplant and is suddenly plagued with memories of events that never happened to him. The situation appeals to Isabel as a philosophical question: Is the heart truly the seat of the soul? And it piques her insatiable curiosity: Could the memories be connected with the donor's...
Author
Series
Isabel Dalhousie mysteries volume 4
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Description
In addition to being the nosiest and most sypathetic philosopher you are likely to meet, Isabel is now a mother. Charlies, her newborn son, presents her with a myriad wonders of a new life, and doting father Jamie presents her with an intriguing proposal: marriage. In the midst of all this, she receives a disturbing letter announcing that she has been ousted as editor of the Review of Applied Ethics by the ambitious Professor Dove. None of these things,...
Author
Series
Detective Varg novels volume 2
Pub. Date
[2020]
Description
"In the second installment in the best-selling Detective Varg Novels, Ulf and his team investigate a notorious lothario--a wolf of a man whose bad reputation may, much to his chagrin, be all bark and no bite. The Department of Sensitive Crimes, renowned for taking on the most obscure and irrelevant cases, led by Ulf Varg, their best detective, is always prepared to take on an investigation, no matter how complex. So when Ulf is approached by the girlfriend...
Author
Description
"From the beloved author of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series comes a delightful compendium of very short fiction and comics that celebrate the joy and absurdity of the human experience. It is often said that the best things in life come in small packages--anyone in search of proof need look no further than the stories in this collection: brief, utterly engaging tales that offer lasting surprise and delight. From the original Greek financial...
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an Edinburgh philosopher and well-meaning intervener in the affairs of others -- makes a comment that suggests the kind of entertainment "The Lost Art of Gratitude" is going to be. "Somebody had told her," Isabel muses, "that the essence of a good still life was the feeling it inspired that something was just on the point of happening. What was about to happen here?" Not much, it turns out. This literary still life will go on for 56 more pages before...
Author
Description
"While gathering material for a photography book about Edinburgh, Alexander McCall Smith found himself inspired to create stories about the people captured in a number of particularly striking photos. A smiling girl leading a younger girl astride a pony, and a boy in a kilt on a tricycle beside them, gives rise to a story of a lifelong romance between the two riders. A dapper, roguish-looking man perching on a lady's knee sparks the story of a ventriloquist...
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"Newlywed painter and sometime somnambulist Angus Lordie might be sleepwalking his way into trouble with Animal Welfare when he lets his dog Cyril drink a bit too much lager at the local bar. The longsuffering Bertie, on the cusp of his seventh birthday party, has taken to dreaming about his eighteenth, a time when he will be able to avoid the indignity of unwanted girl attendees and the looming threat of a gender-neutral doll from his domineering...
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Series
44 Scotland Street volume 7
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Description
If you havent met the residents of 44 Scotland Street yet, there is no better time, since everyone seems to be in the midst of new beginnings. New parents Matthew and Elspeth must muddle through the difficulties of raising their triplets Rognvald, Tobermory, and Fergus. Angus and Domenica are newly engaged, and now they must negotiate the complex merger of two households. Domenica is also forced to deal with the return of an old flame, while Big Lou...
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Series
44 Scotland Street volume 10
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Description
Things are looking up for seven-year-old Bertie Pollock. The arrival of his spirited grandmother and the absence of his meddlesome mother-who is currently running a book club in a Bedouin harem (don't ask)-bring unforeseen blessings: no psychotherapy, no Italian lessons, and no yoga classes. Meanwhile, surprises await Scotland Street's grown-ups. Matthew makes a discovery that could be a major windfall for his family, but also presents a worrisome...
Author
Series
Isabel Dalhousie mysteries volume 8
Pub. Date
[2011]
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Description
Isabel Dalhousie helps a new friend discover the identity of her father. But Isabel also manages to find time for her own concerns: her young son, Charlie, already walking and talking; her housekeeper, Grace, whose spiritualist has lately been doubling as a financial adviser; her niece Cat's latest relationship; and the pressing question of when and how Isabel and Jamie should finally get married.
Author
Series
44 Scotland Street volume 16
Pub. Date
2023.
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Description
"It's the most anticipated event of the decade -- Big Lou and Fat Bob's wedding -- and everyone is invited! But the relative peace and tranquillity of 44 Scotland Street is about to be disrupted. Domineering Irene is set to return for a two-month stay, consigning young Bertie to a summer camp. Not content with that, she somehow manages to come between the enigmatic nun, Sister Maria-Fiore dei Fiori di Montagna, and her friend, the hagiographer, Antonia...
Author
Pub. Date
2017.
Description
Val Eliot, a young woman working on an English farm during the war, meets Mike, a US Air Force pilot stationed nearby. When 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. And so Peter Woodhouse finds a new home on the air force base, and Val finds herself falling in love.Peter Woodhouse becomes Dog First Class, a canine mascot on the base who boldly accompanies...
Author
Series
Isabel Dalhousie mysteries volume 12
Pub. Date
2018.
Description
"Isabel becomes involved in a delicate paternity case in the twelfth installment of the beloved Isabel Dalhousie Series. Isabel finds herself befriended by Patricia, a single mother whose son, Basil, goes to school with Isabel's son. Isabel discovers that Basil is the product of an affair Patricia had with a well-known Edinburgh organist, also named Basil, who was, rumor has it, initially reluctant to contribute financially to the child's upkeep....
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Series
44 Scotland Street volume 6
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Description
All our favorite characters are up to new tricks in the utterly charming sixth novel in the bestselling 44 Scotland Street series. The great city of Edinburgh is renowned for its impeccable restraint, so how, then, did the extended family of 44 Scotland Street come to be trembling on the brink of reckless self-indulgence? After seven years and five books, Bertie is-finally!-about to turn seven. But one afternoon he mislays his meddling mother Irene,...