Synopses & Reviews
In addition to being the snoopingest and most sympathetic philosopher you are likely to meet, Isabel Dalhousie is now also a mother. Her newborn son presents her with the myriad mysteries of a new life (and doting father Jamie presents her with the idea of another new life--as his wife), but that doesn't in any way diminish her curiosity about other mysteries. And when she attends an art auction, Isabel finds an irresistible puzzle at hand: a painting attributed to a now-deceased artist features a person the artist could have encountered only after he was said to have died. Is the painting a forgery? Is the artist actually alive? Either possibility is sufficient fodder for Isabel's inquisitiveness. So she begins an investigation... and soon finds herself diverging from her customary philosophical paths, onto a path that leads her into a world and a way of life that she could never have imagined.
Synopsis
The residents and neighbors of 44 Scotland Street and the city of Edinburgh come to vivid life in these gently satirical, wonderfully perceptive serial novels, featuring six-year-old Bertie, a remarkably precocious boy-just ask his mother. This just in from Edinburgh: the complicated lives of the denizens of 44 Scotland Street are becoming no simpler. Domenica Macdonald has left for the Malacca Straits to conduct a perilous anthropological study of pirate households. Angus Lordie's dog, Cyril, has been stolen, and is facing an uncertain future wandering the streets. Bertie, the prodigiously talented six-year-old, is still enduring psychotherapy, but his burden is lightened by a junior orchestra's trip to Paris, where he makes some interesting new friends. Back in Edinburgh, there is romance for Pat with a handsome young man called Wolf, until she begins to see the attractions of the more prosaically named Matthew. Teeming with McCall Smith's wonderful wit and charming depictions of Edinburgh, Love Over Scotland is another beautiful ode to a city and its people that continue to fascinate this astounding author.