Series:Detective Varg #0.5

2023-12-04: Meh. Varg's a weird dude and that's only partly because he's Swedish. He's not really weird, he's just a sleep walker and Swedish and that feels weird to me.

His brother's an evil twit who doesn't realize he's evil but someone really needs to tell him. There are lots of people like that, including 99% of Republicans and a large chunk of Democrats. 😔 ( )

Detective Ulf Varg is the head of the Department of Sensitive Crimes for the Malmö police. It's important to understand that this is not the Special Victims Unit. The cases they get are...strange. Odd. Possibly a bit weird, sometimes.

The case that comes to them, one fine morning, involves a champion pedigreed cat, a Burmese, belonging to a breeder of Oriental cats. The breeder, with this particular cat, attended a cat show. The cat was bred to a champion male, and the entire expected litter was pre-sold.

When the kittens were born, they were clearly not purebred Burmese, and the breeder has a huge problem. One aspect of this is a rumor that her champion Burmese female wasn't really purebred. A story then emerges that a person, never seen clearly enough to be identified, snuck in a big, rangy, street tom, and put him into the Burmese female's crate. Nature took its course, and the mixed-breed litter was the result. Sabotage, rather than fraud.

Ulf and his partner, Anna, have to figure out the truth.

That's their official case. Ulf's brother, Bjorn, is the leader of a political party called the Moderate Extremists. They have great ambitions, but they're polling at about 1%, as are their main rivals, the Extreme Moderates. Ulf and Bjorn don't see eye to eye on politics, at all, and maintain their closeness as brothers by not discussing politics, ever. So it's a real surprise when Bjorn calls Ulf and asks for help with a political problem. Someone is leaking sensitive party information to their rivals, the Extreme Moderates. This could shake Bjorn's position as the head of the Moderate Extremists.

Very, very reluctantly, Ulf agrees to do a quiet, private investigation.

If you've read McCall Smith's other mysteries, you know hard-hitting crime investigation isn't the point, here. It's good people, some more good than others, trying to solve problems and make the world a little better. There are interesting and likable characters here, each with their own problems, and basic decency. It's enjoyable.

No, I have no idea how McCall Smith's depiction of at least part of Sweden's political world will look to Swedes. My provisional assumption is that the specific parties mentioned are detached enough from reality to not cause any great offense,

I bought this this story. ( )

Very enjoyable quick read. Best description is: charming. The characters were quaint and if this were ever a tv show I would definitely watch, which is saying something as I watch very little tv. ( )

Ok....Alexander McCall Smith is now firmly ensconced as one of my favorite authors. His No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series is charming. I'm sorry I didn't start reading it long before now! And the first Detective Varg book, The Department of Sensitive Crimes, is witty and humorous. I jumped at the chance to read this Varg short story as well. It was as perfect a start to my day as my cup of mocha coffee.

Detective Ulf Varg is the senior officer in the Department of Sensitive Crimes. They investigate....well....sensitive crimes. Unusual cases that just don't fit into regular police investigation. The strange. The weird. The seemingly mundane, yet perplexing. Things like a show cat introduced to a ratty ginger tom cat by a nefarious person or persons unknown resulting in a litter of questionable kittens.....a chef who adds high doses of laxatives to the meals of politicians he doesn't like....a traitorous mole in a fringe political party that is sharing party platform and agenda secrets with another equally ridiculous fringe party. Unusual cases....sometimes silly cases....but ones that must be looked into. There is also lots of lovely side banter between the officers in the department. They talk about the chances of being hit by a meteorite, overfishing of tuna, the beauty of vintage Saab cars, the psychology of depressed dogs, and Bergman films. The end result is a humorous, witty, and entertaining story.

Don't expect the usual investigative suspense novel when it comes to Detective Varg. This series is really literary fiction with a sprinkling of investigation and lots of light-hearted wit. Read this series for the wit and humor....just go with the flow. Varg and his department are a tongue-in-cheek commentary on the ever popular Scandinavian crime novel. I got an even bigger kick out of this story because I'm currently listening to a very serious Harry Hole (Jo Nesbo) audio book and kept thinking about what Harry Hole would think about the Moderate Extremist party and a litter of kittens with questionable genetics. :) I think he would have a very large drink, smoke a couple cigarettes, and just go home to watch television.

Great story! Very enjoyable! I can't wait for the next book in the new Varg series. :)

**I voluntarily read a review copy of this short story from Knopf Doubleday via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.** ( )

The Strange Case of the Moderate Extremists is a Vintage Short by author Alexander McCall Smith. Swedish Detective Ulf Varg is a member of The Department of Sensitive Crimes. His younger brother, Bjorn, leader of the Moderate Extremist Party suspects someone is leaking their ideas to the media as well as to their political rivals, the Extreme Moderates and wants Ulf to suss out the traitor. Ulf has mixed feelings since he doesn't support the party and he's not sure it would be ethical for him to investigate but, on the other hand, it is his brother asking so what to do.

Meanwhile, he is called in to deal with an odd (and rather funny) case in which a raggedy old Tom cat was placed into the carrier of a prize winning Burmese cat named Duchess IV. Nature having taken it's course, the snobbish owner of said Burmese wants the perpetrator of this heinous crime caught and duly punished.

I found the story, for the most part, charming and humorous but also somewhat frustrating. Like most of Smith's books, it is less about the cases in the story and more about the human condition, in this case the mysteries of love and the humour to be found in people's relations with political parties. However, I have never been a huge fan of short stories and this a good example of why. There's too little time to really get to know the characters well enough to care about them. Also, the ending seemed abrupt and left both cases feeling unresolved.

Still, overall, I did enjoy it enough to recommend it at least to fans of the author and I will definitely be reading the first fulll-length novel in the series, The Department of Sensitive Crimes.

Thanks to Netgalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review ( )