The Man with the Silver Saab

 By Alexander McCall Smith

Pantheon     2021

256 pages           Mystery (?)

I am not at all sure in which genre to place The Man with the Silver Saab, and indeed, any of the writings of Alexander McCall Smith. In seeking out the answer to that question, I noticed that few of the reviewers had the same classification. Some placed it in mystery, some in humor, and some in satire. I might place it in philosophy because McCall Smith infuses his philosophy of life into every aspect of the narration.

This particular series, the Detective Varg series, takes place in the Swedish city of Malmo, where Ulf Varg is the head of the Department of Sensitive Crimes. The Man with the Silver Saab is the third book in the series, but the reader can drop in anywhere. (That’s part of the genius of McCall Smith.) Although we never truly understand what constitutes a “sensitive crime,” we end up loving Ulf Varg, especially as he deals with a very boring colleague, as well as with the colleague for whom he has romantic feelings.

The reader quickly finds that the plot is secondary to the musings of the characters and the laugh-out-loud humor that infuses every moment of the plot. I genuinely laughed out loud several times and was emotionally touched at other times. An example of this occurred when Varg was looking out the window. He noticed a man and woman walking down the street. Their pace changed when the man took the woman’s arm. It appeared to Varg that they belonged together. “That was security; that was completeness. And then two young men came along, walking behind them, and one of the young men suddenly put an arm around the other, and Ulf thought: that is exactly the same thing.” It is this type of narration that warms the heart of the reader and expresses the soul of the author. There is a sensitive crime, to be sure, a strange situation with a painting and the art expert who believes his life is being damaged because of bad publicity. And here is a picture of a silver Saab, similar to the one Varg drives, in case you, like me, had no idea what a Saab looks like.

The Man with the Silver Saab is a perfect read for warm summer days and a foil against disturbing daily media. McCall Smith says in an interview with the Scottish newspaper, The Herald: “I, like most people, want to be uplifted and presented with a vision of the world that has some hope in it. I believe in being positive – what’s the point of being negative? It doesn’t improve life. I don’t want to be a Pollyanna claiming everything is wonderful, but we should leave room in life for the positive and uplifting.”

Not much more needs to be said about The Man with the Silver Saab except to escape into its pages. Publisher’s Weekly suggests that the plot is “gossamer thin” and “almost irrelevant. The novel’s pleasures lie in Ulf’s philosophical asides and comments on how to live a good, just life.” You will be uplifted and will contemplate how Ulf lives a life that is filled with kindness and civility while solving sensitive crimes. Oh, and you will discover how a veterinarian could possible sew the nose of a dog upside down after the dog has been attacked by a squirrel.

I have read—and I am sure you have as well—several books in the many series of Alexander McCall Smith. He wrote and published 7 books during the pandemic, including a new entry in the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, my personal favorite.

The Little Old Lady Behaving Badly

By Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg

Harper Collins     2018

464 pages     Mystery/Humor

The Little Old Lady Behaving Badly describes the further adventures of the Pensioner’s League: a group of old folk’s home Robin Hoods, who are seeking to create special events for their elderly compatriots and to justly compensate the low wage workers in the nursing homes and hospitals that serve them. The book is translated from the Swedish.

This is the third book in the series, and as some reviewers have noted, perhaps it ought to be the last. It is absurdist humor at its best (?). I chose it because of the title, since I consider myself a “little old lady behaving badly,” and thus I had few expectations and quite a few laughs. Martha is the mastermind of the group, and the others take roles that utilize their skills and sometimes involve their adult children. The first crime of this episode included robbing a bank using a garbage truck to suck the money out of the safe. Of course, the truck was full of garbage, so all the loot had to be cleaned and ended up smelling of vinegar, their cleaner of choice. When they had to decide what they would do with the stolen garbage truck, they drove it into their vacationing neighbor’s pool, covered it with cement, and planted sod and bushes over it. See what I mean about absurdist!

The other adventures of the pensioners aren’t quite so funny, although they are extremely creative. And, because they are old, they never get caught and actually cause little suspicion. Additionally, the book may have been about 100 pages too long and one adventure too crazy. Of course, I have been sitting at the beach this week, so this was a perfect beach read because my brain is already fried. My next read has someone die in it, and I am having trouble getting into it—not quite appropriate for the beach.

Other books in the series besides The Little Old Lady Behaving Badly include The Little Old Lady who Broke All the Rules and The Little Old Lady who Struck Lucky Again. The book reminded me of the movie, Going in Style about old men bank robbers.

Academic Affairs: A Poisoned Apple

By Peter Likins

Darby Books    2017

150 pages     Cozy Mystery

Peter Likins, the author of Academic Affairs: A Poisoned Apple is a distinguished educator—former president of the University of Arizona. In retirement, he has written several books, the newest of which is this cozy mystery.

Academic Affairs is set at a small Christian college in Alabama and features the death of the school’s president and the murder of the Dean and his administrative assistant. The county sheriff runs the shop with his son and daughter, but they seem unable to solve the murder. A young professor with journalistic aspirations also works on the case, but it is the Black hairdressers and maids who solve the murders. They are privy to more details than are the others as they are in the background of every situation at the college and in the community. This is the South in the 1930s.

The most interesting part of the mystery in the discussion of sexual harassment on the college campus. Surely harassment was seldom discussed openly at a Christian college in the South in the 1930s. Prior to his murder, the Dean was a womanizer, and all the new female staff members were warned about him when they came to campus. Sound familiar? Timely?

This is just a dear little cozy mystery, short and sweet. It is made even more dear because it is the result of the retirement hobby of its author. It came to me from his publicist.

Peter Likins website.

Still Life

by Louise Penny

St. Martin's     2005

312 pages     Mystery 

My friend Nancy has told me several times that Louise Penny is her favorite mystery writer, but up until last month, I had never read any of her books. Well, now I am hooked for several reasons. First, I had never read a novel based in Quebec. Second, Chief Inspector Gamache, the protagonist in the series, is an extremely thoughtful, charming man, loved by his subordinates and a very thorough detective. The Kirkus reviewer said, "Cerebral, wise and compassionate, Gamache is destined for stardom. Don't miss this stellar debut."

Still Life begins spectacularly. (I have become aware of how important opening lines of novels are.) Penny writes: "Miss Jane Neal met her maker in the early morning mist of Thanksgiving Sunday. It was pretty much a surprise all around." Jane Neal, an elderly retired schoolteacher, was a cherished member of the small community of Three Pines, south of Montreal. Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his associates set out to solve her murder, made more difficult because the community is small; everyone knows everyone, and someone is keeping a secret. 

The beauty of Still Life is not the plot, which is a bit scattered. The beauty is in the awesome detective, the spectacular setting, and the genuine character development. Penny writes about Gamache viewing the village: "As he sat quietly and let the village happen around him, he was impressed by how beautiful it was, these old homes facing the green, with their mature perennial gardens and trees. By how natural everything looked, undesigned."

Gamache is a master detective. He knows that "crime is deeply human." He knows that if he is to catch Jane Neal's killer, he has to know the setting and the people. He has to connect with all the human beings involved. 

Mystery buffs will find that there are a lot of loose ends in the novel. This was Penny's first mystery novel, and I am assuming that she improved because she has won many awards for this series. My favorite line in the book comes from the musings of the village book seller, Myrna. "She felt if she could just get a good look at a person's bookcase and their grocery cart, she'd pretty much know who they were." A truth if there ever was one!

It's cold and snowy here; warm and cozy by the fire. Find a good mystery and settle in. Louise Penny has written 12 books in the Inspector Gamache series. Start with Still Life and read through them all. Then it will be spring!

Louise Penny's website.

Here are the books in order:

Still Life, A Fatal Grace/Dead Cold (same book, different title), The Cruelest Month, A Rule Against Murder/The Murder Stone (same book, different title), The Brutal Telling, Bury Your Dead, A Trick of the Light, The Beautiful Mystery, How the Light Gets In, The Long Way Home, The Nature of the Beast, A Great Reckoning.

Murder at the Moonshine Inn

by Maggie King

Koehler Books     2016

258 pages     Mystery

Ok! So it's election night and I am absolutely frantic. Are you?  What better thing to do than to read and review a fun mystery. How about a cozy? How about Murder at the Moonshine Inn?

Hazel Rose is a romance novelist and a member of a Richmond VA book club. This particular book club reads mysteries. Several years ago, the members of the book club were shocked when one of their members was murdered. Hazel Rose and her book club friends solved that murder in Murder at the Book Group, the first book in the Hazel Rose Book Group mystery series. 

Now, I have a really nice book group, but it isn't anything like Hazel Rose's! When Roxanne Howard, a local nonprofit executive, is found dead at the Moonshine Inn, her sister asks Hazel Rose if she can help to find the killer. The police have focused on her husband Brad, who just happens to be a cousin of Hazel Rose. (Actually Hazel has cousins all over the place and they all play a role in the mystery.) The police, however, can't seem to pin the murder on Brad. Hazel reluctantly agrees. She's not sure she's up for another murder investigation.

The book group decide that they want to be part of the investigation, so Hazel enlists them. Everyone has a detective job to do, and they meet weekly via Skype to compare notes and decide on strategy. The investigation gets serious when Hazel Rose and her husband, Vince, a former police detective, dress up like rednecks and visit the Moonshine Inn, where the murder occurred. Everyone is talking about a strange man who has been seen around Roxanne and was at the Moonshine Inn on the night she was murdered, but no one can figure out who he is.  And then someone else is murdered!

Murder at the Moonshine Inn is more humorous than its predecessor. Most likely Hazel Rose is getting her footing as a detective and Maggie King is getting her footing as an author. The good thing about Hazel Rose is that she doesn't take herself too seriously. For example, someone says that they love her romance novels. She thinks, "Doubtful. I had my fans, but more than a few looked down their noses at what they deemed my drivel with no redeeming social value. Thankfully, scores of folk were fine with non-redemptive drivel." And then when she is stymied, she thinks, "What would Nancy Drew do?"

Indeed, what would Nancy Drew do? Well, with the help of her husband and her book club crew, Hazel Rose bungles her way into solving the crimes. Maybe not as smooth as Nancy Drew, but a crime solver, none the less. 

Hazel Rose is a thoroughly delightful character, and when I look at a picture of Maggie King, the author, I see Hazel Rose the detective. I was honored when Maggie King asked me to read and review her second book. I enjoyed these murders as much as the first, but I don't believe the books need to be read in order. So, cozy up to a delightful cozy mystery. Well, actually, cozy up next week, when the book is released.

Maggie King's website.

The Crepes of Wrath: A Pancake House Mystery

by Sarah Fox

Alibi       2016

257 pages     Cozy Mystery

The setup of The Crepes of Wrath is good. Marley comes to the small beachfront Washington community to help out her cousin Jimmy who has landed in the hospital with pneumonia. Jimmy runs a popular diner in Wildwood Cove called The Flipside Pancake House. Marley takes a leave of absence from her job as a legal assistant in Seattle to help out. We never meet Jimmy because he is murdered on his way home from the hospital. At that point, Marley becomes consumed with trying to figure out who has murdered him. The town is small and everyone becomes a suspect in Marley's eyes.

The setting is also good. The Crepes of Wrath takes place off season in a small beach community. I could visualize the spot and the people who live there. The Flipside Pancake House restaurant reminded me a bit of Gull Landing, the little restaurant in our vacation spot of Pentwater Michigan. It stays open all winter and only serves the community. The Victorian house that Marley inherits when Jimmy dies sits on the beach, but houses are being torn down all around it to make way for new development, which of course, is an anathema to the townspeople. Hence the tension in the community and potential murderers who may want Jimmy's beach front property.

The plot moves along rapidly, which is good, and the climax is a bit of a surprise. I found myself engrossed in the final chapters as it becomes more and more dangerous for Marley to move around in the community as she seeks to solve the murder. Although there was foreshadowing as to who the murderer might be, I was surprised when the murderer was revealed.

What is totally lacking in The Crepes of Wrath is a reason to read the book. I felt that the author Sarah Fox was just going through the motions—clicking off all the components of a cozy mystery—setting (check), motive (check), recipes (check). As a reader, I never connected with the characters. Even though the story is told through the eyes of Marley, we never really know her, and we know her love interest, Brett even less. And speaking of love interest, both of these characters—Marley and Brett—are supposed to be in their thirties, but this is the most chaste, 14-year-old romance ever. (Would readers of cozy mysteries be offended if the main characters did more than just feel "the electricity" between them.)  Romance (check)!

If you want to know what a cozy mystery should contain, I refer you to the Cozy Mystery blog, which gives you a run-down of all the components. And oh, by the way, the recipes at the end of the book are very good. If the rest of the book were only as good as the recipes. . .

So, why waste time reading a so-so cozy mystery? For the same reason that we sometimes mindlessly click through TV channels or flip on ridiculous websites; our brains need a rest. It had been a rough week, and I needed a rest. Now, I am ready to tackle meatier fare. Oh, and by the way, have you watched The Night Of on HBO?

The Crepes of Wrath is available as an ebook for $3.99. Cheap therapy!

Here's a review by a blogger who felt like I did about the Crepes of Wrath.

The Handsome Man's De Luxe Cafe

by Alexander McCall Smith

Pantheon Books     2014

227 pages     Mystery

Sometimes you just want comfort reading!

I was reading Ta-Nehisi Coates' Between the World and Me on my vacation in Florida last week, but it was so rich and dense that I didn't want to be challenged on the airplane trip home. What to read?

AAH! The Number One Ladies Detective series is comfort reading! It is comfortable because it makes you smile, because the cases to be solved are solveable, and because everything gets settled in the end. Also, if you have a small stretch of available time, you can read a Ladies Detective series book in one sitting. I had The Handsome Man's De Luxe Cafe on my Kindle. I sighed and delved right in.

Precious Ramotswe warms your heart. Her philosophical musings are so dear and so practical. Here's an example "There was not all that much that one person could do; it was not possible for one woman to hold back the tide of greed and self-centredness that seemed to be sweeping across the world, but she would do whatever lay within her powers to do."

Another great quote: "There was no point in thinking of the bottom when one wanted to get to the top." I do so love Precious!

In book #15 of the series, The Handsome Man's De Luxe Cafe, Mme Ramotswe and Mme Makutsi, the lady detectives, are working on a rather difficult case (as difficult as their cases are) and Mme Makutsi is also opening a diner-style restaurant, The Handsome Man's De Luxe Cafe. Things are not going well on the case or at the cafe, and the problems are compounded because Charlie, the former apprentice mechanic, has come to work for them as an assistant secretary.  It isn't necessary to say any more about the plot—or the non-plot as the case may be. Suffice it to say that nothing much happens and that is perfectly fine with the reader.

Alexander McCall Smith is a unique voice in the world of cozy mysteries. Botswana is an unlikely setting, but it is one Smith knows very well. He lived there for many years and understands the culture. Along with comfort reading, philosophical lessons, and minor character development, we learn a bit about the culture of this unique African country with every reading. 

I have read several books in the series, and I can recommend them for when you need something comfortable.  Here are my postings for  Tea Time for the Traditionally Built and The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party.