Customer Reviews:
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 Fun Stuff April 16, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
True, this book is light reading but if you need something to lighten your mood I highly recommend this series. The ability to write seemingly effortless fiction is a gift that I don't disparage just because it isn't Hamlet. There is a need for all kinds of writing and humorous fiction is a type of writing that few do well.
Love Over Scotland is the best of the three books so far and I found the adventures of Bertie to be hilarious. Admittedly, Bertie is a bit over the top but any insistence on believability would just ruin the fun. I look forward to more adventures...
 Treading lightly... April 7, 2008
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
Wow! After reading all the other reviews, almost all 5 star for this book, I better tread lightly! I guess I better begin by stating that my family thoroughly enjoyed listening to No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series on tape and I was ready to love another McCall Smith read. That said, I found Love Over Scotland very easy reading, great for light, mindless, relaxing reading- and the chapters are really short making it possible to read a snatch here and there and come to a good stopping point every time.
However, some of the characters were most unbelievable. Come on, Bertie?? A six year old doing and saying and thinking all that he does? I understand precocious but this is absurd. A six year old traveling about Paris on his own and discussing philosophy with students from Sorbonne? It was disturbing to imagine him as a six year old.
Domenica traveling off to Malacca to live among pirates as an anthropologist and getting on just splendidly; it sounds entertaining and exciting but she was a bore.
The boring people, Matthew, Pat, Big Lou were, as characters, much more exciting for the believability factor.
I think McCall Smith has a following who will continue to read his books no matter, and he should be very thankful.
"Love Is A Many Splendoured Thing" April 5, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
McCall Smith gives us a very interesting look at life and love as he waxes eloquently in this third book of the "44 Scotland Street" series. The vicissitudes of loves and life are truly illuminated in this book. The search for love and the various forms that it takes are at the heart of each of the character's adventures in this installment in the series.
Not all of the loves are successful. Some end tragically. Some never get off the ground. And most, as is true of love and life, come when least expected. As always, Smith seems to capture human behavior in his unique and insightful manner. Yet he could not have picked a more difficult topic. For many of us, we wonder what love really is anyway. Are we in love? How do we decide? How do we go about attaining it, if we don't have it? How do we deal with it when it ends? All these questions are touched on and illustrated by Smith in his inimitable manner.
What truly makes this book a wonderful piece of work by Smith is its intense realism. While perhaps more of the loves work out in his book than they do in life, not all of them do, and in that way, Smith describes a hugely important piece of behavioral science, the sociology of love. Of all the books in the "44 Scotland Street" series, this book is perhaps the best. Smith has developed most of these characters in his first two books and thus, they are ripe for tackling a subject as complex as love. The montage effect he achieves because of his short chapters that are serialized, allows for a variety of information and material constantly flowing past the reader as Smith develops the concepts that people use to deal with and evaluate and find love in their lives. The book is truly another wonderful creation by McCall Smith, who just seems to get more impressive as he continues to be more prolific. It is highly recommended to all readers of Smith and all seekers of love.
Brilliant Story Telling March 28, 2008
This was by far my favorite of the Scotland Street series. The stories were witty, entertaining and just plain enjoyable to read. While I still cannot help but feel sorry for Bertie I was happy to see him enjoy some part of his childhood with his excursion to Paris, sans Irene, his overbearing mother. I loved the direction Matthew and Pat were headed and that Big Lou will still be around to serve up more coffee and advise. Domenica had a rather interesting anthropological study on her hands in the Malacca Straights and Angus, in her absence, had an unfortunate incident occur when Cyril, his beloved dog, was snatched.
All this and more in the ever entertaining world of those who reside on Scotland Street. A definite read for McCall Smith fans.
 Another Great Serial by McCall Smith March 25, 2008
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
To an urban American, the McCall Smith characters of the "44 Scotland Street" - like "The Number 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" - resound in familiarity and honesty, rarely found characteristics in my home town. And like "No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency", the characters within these pages infectiously become more and more precious as the serial writer's presentation increases.
The most honest, and most poignant character, is 6-year old Bertie whose constant battles with mother Irene and father Stuart pinnacle when he goes to the police station and tells the police about his parents' business engagement with Lard O'Connor (the Tony Soprano of Scotland). It is all so simple, a carryover from the second novel. But, things in Edinburgh get darker.
Anthropologist Domenica actually goes out to see her Malaysian pirates, and discovers that they are scamming dolts who betray the pirate motto of lore. Even her pirate guide scams her by intruding and interfering with her work, until she bags him near the book's end.
Angus, the artist whose dog Cyril is everyone's friend, also is scammed by a Scot when his beloved mutt is dognapped while he is grocery shopping. Thankfully Cyril returns, but only after walking the streets of Edinburgh with a broken heart and an aching jaw, an injury derived from the dognapper's unsolicited swift kick.
But, Scotland Street's inhabitants - on the whole - are good people. "She has seen candour and honesty and utter transparency. But you had to be a child to be like that today, because all about us was the most pervasive cynicism that eroded everything with its superficiality and its sneers."
Pat, the college student, who encounters hard times with yet another roommate from hell, makes Matthew ask a most poignant question about bathroom etiquette when sharing a one-bathroom flat: "You can assume that if there's somebody in there, then the door will be locked." But, many do not lock doors. And intrusion occurs. So we must ask: "But then why does the person who opens the door feel bad about it?"
Pat remains mainly honest and without ethical fault. Her boss, Matthew, was equally pure, but an encounter with Lard for the benefit of friend Lou may have delivered him "to the dark side" - something that book 4 of this series will obviously focus upon.
Angus continues to mope while best friend Domenica engages in her months-upon-moths research, and tries to amuse her friend and flat watcher, Antonia, but all to no avail. Maybe book 4 will clear this up as well. And Pat seems to need to clear things up (or whatever) with Matthew in book 4 as well.
So goes McCall Smith, again leading the readers to anticipate more from the eccentric but lovable characters of 44 Scotland Street and their friends. After reading so many of his serial novels, I can only ask "How does he do it?" McCall Smith has proven great breadth in his serial writing. Scotland's J.K. Rowling and Alexander McCall Smith are unquestionably two of the premier serial writers of the past decade.
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