This is the 14th book in the "44 Scotland Street" series. It can be read as a standalone, but familiarity with the series is a plus.
In these affable, humorous books Alexander McCall Smith follows the lives of a group of people who reside in Edinburgh's "New Town" neighborhood. Many of the characters live in apartments at 44 Scotland Street - and others are their neighbors, friends and acquaintances.
*****
Domenica is an independent anthropologist who's interested in people, especially the new renters moving into the ground floor of 44 Scotland Street.
The new tenants turn out to be five university students, and everyone knows students can be bad news with their parties and such. Nevertheless, Domenica is impressed when she meets the 'leader' of the group, an affable, well-built young man named Torquil, who has a strikingly handsome face with dimples.
Domenica is even more impressed when Torquil borrows her mop and bucket to take his turn wiping down the building's staircases.
Domenica's husband, Angus Lordie, is a portrait artist whose best friend is his dog Cyril.
Cyril is a good boy aside from his compulsion to bite ankles, which is usually kept under control. One day Angus and his friend are hiking with Cyril when the canine digs up what looks like an old human skull. Domenica opines that the skull might be from a Neanderthal man, and the couple are excited to check with experts.
*****
Irene Pollock is a difficult controlling woman who dominated the lives of her husband Stuart and her seven-year-old son Bertie. Now - to the relief of Bertie, Stuart, and Stuart's mother Nicola - Irene has taken herself off to Aberdeen to study for her Ph.D. and continue her affair with Dr. Fairbairn. Still, Irene visits Edinburgh on occasion, and she's in town to see her sons, Bertie and his baby brother Ulysses.
The instant Irene steps into the apartment she starts criticizing, her first issue being that Nicola moved the bread bin from one table to another.
Irene then complains about the contents of the kitchen cabinets and proceeds to needle and demean Stuart. Stuart manages to escape to meet his friend Katie, with whom Stuart hopes to have a romance.....but there may be a spanner in the works.
Meanwhile, poor little Bertie.....
.....is still being plagued by his classmate Olive, who's constantly make spiteful, cutting remarks and insisting that Bertie will have to marry her.
Bertie's grandmother Nicola has had enough of this and makes a plan to get Bertie away for a time.
*****
Art gallery owner Matthew.....
.....and his wife Elspeth have toddler triplet boys who are more than a handful.
Matthew and Elspeth employ a nineteen-year-old au pair named James, who's wonderful with the children and a great cook to boot.
Elspeth is getting antsy about being stuck in the country with the kids, so Matthew bought a 51% share of Big Lou's Coffee Shop (run by Big Lou), which Elspeth will (eventually) help manage.
Meanwhile, Matthew and Elspeth arrange for James to be a part-time au pair and a part-time assistant in Big Lou's Coffee Shop - where James will create new noshes for the customers.
James has something else on his mind as well. James has been calling and texting his eccentric uncle, the Duke of Johannesburg, but the duke hasn't responded. So James and Matthew take steps to see what's up with the duke.
*****
Nosy, aphorism-spouting Italian nun, Sister Maria-Fiore dei Fiori di Montagna, has been rapidly climbing the Edinburgh social ladder since she moved to town.
The nun is now on the board of the Scottish National Gallery, which is considering putting warning labels on 'disturbing paintings' such as Nicolas Poussin's 'Landscape with a Man Killed by a Snake.'
****
We meet two new characters in this book - two professional men patronizing Big Lou's Coffee Shop - who happen to be the director and secretary of the Scottish nudist society. There's a rivalry between Edinburgh nudists and Glasgow nudists, and this vignette is hilarious.
****
I always enjoy the books in this series, and like the fact that the novels - replete with words and phrases from the author's profession as a legal scholar - expand my vocabulary. Recommended for a bit of light reading.
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