Virtue virtuoso

Alexander McCall Smith’s latest crime novel is largely blood-free – but for a deaf dog’s run-in with a squirrel.

fictional detective, Mankell’s Wallander, is neither stressed nor embittered. The nearest he comes to distress is occasioned by his love for his assistant Anna. This is, however, an honourably unspoken love because she is a happily married woman. Nor is he overworked. Indeed, he has quite an enviable life.

There is of course a crime to be investigated. A painting brought to a gallery by an unidentified man for authentication was given by an expert called Kindgren. Later, however, another expert pronounced it a fake. But was this the same painting? Had there been a switch? Was it a plot to discredit Kindgren, even destroy his reputation?

Ulf ’s investigation, pursued with his assistant Blomquist, is quiet but persistent. You feel they will get there in the end, and that the end will be only a little surprising. Blomquist is a prize bore who goes “on and on about his pet interests. Vitamins. Diet. Exercise regimes. Origami.” We get many examples of his talk and Ulf recalls that the other day “on a thirty-minute journey he didn’t draw breath… Apparently he talks in his sleep a lot”. Most of his colleagues shun him. McCall Smith takes a risk here. The reader may find it as boring as they do. He gets away with it because he writes of Blomquist with affection, just as Jane Austen does with Miss Bates in Emma. Ulf, too, behaves with the characteristic decency of McCall Smith’s main characters, turning down the chance to move Blomquist to another department when he realises how hurt he would be. Virtue, happily, has its own reward. Blomquist shows himself to be a diligent and surprisingly acute lieutenant, playing a big part in solving the case.

Some crime novels are read for thrills,