Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0676977243, Paperback)

Bestselling author Alexander McCall Smith brings all the warmth of his extraordinary No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency books and the Sunday Philosophy Club series to this witty novel chronicling the lives of the residents of 44 Scotland Street in Edinburgh. Originally serialized in The Scotsman, 44 Scotland Street is already an international sensation.

When twenty-year-old Pat rents a room from handsome and cocky Bruce, she inherits some delightfully colourful neighbours: Domenica, an insightful and eccentric widow; Bertie, a five-year-old who’s mastered both saxophone and Italian; and Irene, his overbearing mother. Pat’s new job at a gallery seems easy enough. Her boss spends most of his time drinking coffee in a local café and discussing matters great and small, and Pat’s duties are light. That is until she realizes that one of their paintings may be an undiscovered work of a renowned Scottish artist and she discovers that one of their customers may be in on the secret. Add to this a fancy ball, love triangles and an encounter with a famous crime writer, and you have Alexander McCall Smith’s entertaining and witty portrait of Edinburgh society.