44 Scotland Street

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praise for

A L E X A N D E R M c C A L L S M I T H

“Utterly enchanting. . . . It is impossible to come away from an Alexander McCall Smith ‘mystery’ novel without a smile on the lips and warm fuzzies in the heart.”

—Chicago Sun-Times

“McCall Smith’s generous writing and dry humor, his gentleness and humanity, and his ability to evoke a place and a set of characters without caricature or condescension have endeared his books . . . to readers.”

— The New York Times

“Pure joy. . . . The voice, the setting, the stories, the mysteries of human nature. . . . [McCall Smith’s] writing is accessible and the prose is beautiful.”

—Amy Tan

“Mr. Smith, a fine writer, paints his hometown of Edinburgh as indelibly as he captures the sunniness of Africa. We can almost feel the mists as we tread the cobblestones.” — The Dallas Morning News

“Alexander McCall Smith has become one of those commodities, like oil or chocolate or money, where the supply is never sufficient to the demand. . . . [He]

is prolific and habit-forming.”

— The Globe and Mail (Toronto)

“[McCall Smith] captures the cold, foggy, history-drenched atmosphere of Edinburgh . . . with a Jane Austen– like attention to detail.”

— USA Today

alexander mccall smith

4 4 S C O T L A N D S T R E E T

Alexander McCall Smith is the author of the huge international phenomenon, The No. 1 Ladies’

Detective Agency series, and The Sunday Philosophy Club series. He was born in what is now known as Zimbabwe, and he was a law professor at the University of Botswana and at Edinburgh University. He lives in Scotland.

b o o k s b y a l e x a n d e r m cc a l l s m i t h i n t h e n o . 1 l a d i e s ’ d e t e c t i v e a g e n cy s e r i e s The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency Tears of the Giraffe

Morality for Beautiful Girls

The Kalahari Typing School for Men The Full Cupboard of Life

In the Company of Cheerful Ladies

i n t h e s u n d ay p h i l o s o p h y c l u b s e r i e s The Sunday Philosophy Club

Friends, Lovers, Chocolate

i n t h e p o rt u g u e s e i r r e g u l a r v e r b s s e r i e s Portuguese Irregular Verbs

The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs

At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances The Girl Who Married a Lion and Other Tales from Africa 44 Scotland Street

44

SCOTLAND

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A L E X A N D E R M c C A L L S M I T H

Illustrations b y

I A I N M c I N TO S H

a n c h o r b o o k s

A Division of Random House, Inc.

New York

FIRST ANCHOR BOOKS EDITION, JUNE 2005

Copyright © 2005 by Alexander McCall Smith Illustrations copyright © 2005 by Iain McIntosh All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Anchor Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

Originally published in Great Britain by Polygon, an imprint of Birlinn Ltd., Edinburgh, in 2005.

This book is excerpted from a series that originally appeared in the Scotsman newspaper.