44 Scotland Street

From the phenomenon Alexander McCall Smith comes the third book in the bestselling 44 Scotland Street series. Domenica Macdonald has left for the Malacca Straits to research the domestic economy of contemporary pirate households. Meanwhile, back in Edinburgh, painter Angus Lordie's dog, Cyril, has been dog-napped, and Pat gets herself caught up in a potential love triangle. Bertie, the six-year-old prodigal son of the insufferable Irene, is accidentally...

At 44 Scotland Street, six-year-old Bertie seeks escape in the Cub Scouts; Matthew rises to the challenge of married life; Domenica epitomizes the loneliness of the long-distance intellectual; and Cyril, the gold-toothed star of the whole show, succumbs to the kind of romantic temptation that no dog can resist and creates a small problem, or rather six of them, for his friend and owner Angus Lordie.

"Newlywed painter and sometime somnambulist Angus Lordie might be sleepwalking his way into trouble with Animal Welfare when he lets his dog Cyril drink a bit too much lager at the local bar. The longsuffering Bertie, on the cusp of his seventh birthday party, has taken to dreaming about his eighteenth, a time when he will be able to avoid the indignity of unwanted girl attendees and the looming threat of a gender-neutral doll from his domineering...

"Bertie's mother Irene returns from the Middle East to discover that, in her absence, her son has been exposed to the worst of evils--television shows, ice cream parlors, and even unsanctioned art at the National Portrait Gallery. Her wrath descends on Bertie's long-suffering father, Stuart. But Stuart has found a reason to spend more time outside of the house and seems to have a new spring in his step. What does this mean for the residents of 44...