The Discreet Charm of the Big Bad Wolf by Alexander McCall Smith
Alexander McCall Smith’s website welcomes readers with the following: “Find Happiness within the pages of an Alexander McCall Smith book“.
This is sound advice indeed! My recommendation is to have one or more of his books on your nightstand or loaded to your e-reader to soothe jangled nerves, calm stress, chase away the blues or blahs and elicit joy. McCall Smith, whose works are charming, reassuring and life-affirming, has been compared to prolific author P.G. Wodehouse. Generations continue to be entertained with Wodehouse’s light-hearted tales of a wide variety of eccentric, endearing characters and gentle, farcical plots. He published over 90 books, 40 plays and 200+ short stories during his active writing years from 1902-1974. In his prime, he could produce 4-5 books per year and only slowed to 1-2 in his 90’s. His work was considered light humor but it was superbly written and replete with literary allusions.
Hmm, sound familiar? McCall Smith cheerfully claims he can write 1000 words per hour substantiated by the fact he already has over 100 published works! Had he not occupied a major portion of his life and career with his work as a legal scholar, expert on bioethics and Professor of Medical Law, his already prodigious literary output might conceivably rival that of Georges Simenon and Isaac Asimov who authored over 500 books each. However, any new novel or short story of his justifies a celebration and as the author is a youthful 75, one can hope for many more.
Continuation of Swedish Mystery Series
The Discreet Charm of the Big Bad Wolf (Pantheon) is the fourth in the best-selling Detective Ulf Varg series in what author McCall Smith terms as “Scandi blanc,” based in Malmö, Sweden during the sunny summer months.
Malmö is the third largest city in Sweden, located directly across the Öresund strait from Copenhagen, Denmark which is easily reached by way of a large bridge and tunnel network. Malmö is the most multicultural, ethnically diverse (resulting from a large immigrant population) and industrialized city in Sweden with an urban population exceeding 357,700 in a region with four million inhabitants.
The oldest historic buildings date to the 14th century and the newest may house the latest tech start-up companies. Malmö is home to a prominent, championship Swedish Football team, universities, museums and numerous cultural attractions. Comparable to other major cities of its size, it does suffer the blight of urban crime.
An Unconventional Police Bureau
Ulf Varg was introduced in 2019 in a short story, The Strange Case of the Moderate Extremists. Redundantly, Ulf is the Old Norse word for Wolf and Varg is Modern Swedish for Wolf. He is the senior detective in the city’s Department of Sensitive Crimes. This fictional police bureau does not investigate capital crimes of murder, aggravated assaults or major burglaries which are best left to traditional law enforcement. This unusual department concerns itself with odd, whimsical and almost inexplicable occurrences and happenings that require investigation by this unique unit where the detectives outnumber the crimes.
The Discreet Charm of the Big Bad Wolf addresses an alarming situation regarding personnel. Due to a recent dearth of sensitive crime cases, they have been instructed to downsize personnel by one. Office bickering experiences an upsurge along with speculation about who is imminently to be transferred or made redundant. Meanwhile, a significant crime has been reported and requires immediate attention. A wealthy man’s family vacation cabin has mysteriously disappeared from its location in a wooded remote area in the countryside.
Ulf must personally attend to this confounding case with the assistance of his well-intentioned, knowledgeable but annoying colleague Blomquist. He’s the sort of person who when asked upon walking into the office how the weather is will give an in-depth dissertation on temperature, air quality, the various cloud formations and the possibility of precipitation that would bore meteorology professionals into a stupor. In his defense, however, he is meticulously observant and most significantly has a high rate of success in crime-solving. The Detective Varg novels really are essentially about professional and personal relationships, friendship, love, respect, ethical and moral behavior with the addition of a great deal of self-examination by the protagonist.
The Department consists of the aforementioned Blomquist along with Anna Bengsdotter, the unspoken object of Ulf Varg’s secret desires, who is unattainably married with two children. Erik is present but his interest is in all aspects of fishing. Carl is the unit’s pseudo philosopher expostulating from the shadow of his scholarly father who penned an authoritative book on Kierkegaard. Ulf oversees the case, is the decision-maker and arbiter while shepherding a harmonious, peaceful, and professional office atmosphere. They all routinely attend social awareness and diversity classes and have access to psychological counseling.
Canine Companions and Plenty of Humor
If the missing cabin in the woods case and the office downsizing issue weren’t enough, Ulf is on the horns of a dilemma involving Marten, his devoted hearing-impaired dog. Marten is profoundly deaf but surprisingly is able to lip-read Swedish and in all other ways seems to be a happy, well-adjusted and otherwise physically healthy dog.
Like any responsible pet owner, Ulf wants to do what is best and his girlfriend Juni is pushing him to consider cochlear implants for Marten. She works for an innovative veterinary surgeon who wants to test out this risky and controversial for humans procedure that has rarely been performed with animals. Additionally, the operation is costly; 300,000 kronor or about $28,000 dollars which Detective Varg does not have. Juni then suggests he sell to a collector his beloved vintage silver Saab, an inheritance from a favorite uncle. Juni is, problematically for Varg, perhaps more than a little fond of her veterinarian employer.
The Detective Varg novels are somewhat reminiscent of the screwball comedy films of the 1930s; light-hearted, funny, escapist humor with a frothy combination of a little romance and a great deal of heart. McCall Smith has once again charmed his audience with The Discreet Charm of the Big Bad Wolf and undoubtedly readers will find it as enjoyable as I did.
Alexander McCall Smith is one of the world’s most prolific and most popular authors. His career has been a varied one: for many years he was a professor of Medical Law and worked in universities in the United Kingdom and abroad. Then, after the publication of his highly successful No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, which has sold over twenty million copies, he devoted his time to the writing of fiction and has seen his various series of books translated into over forty-six languages and become bestsellers through the world. These include the Scotland Street novels, first published as a serial novel in The Scotsman, the Isabel Dalhousie novels, the Von Igelfeld series and the Corduroy Mansions series, novels which started life as a delightful (but challenging to write) cross-media serial, written on the website of the Telegraph Media Group. This series won two major cross-media awards — Association of Online Publishers Digital Publishing Award 2009 for a Cross Media Project and the New Media Age award.
In addition to these series, Alexander writes stand-alone books. 2014 sees publication of three new novels which fall into this area: The Forever Girl; Fatty O’Leary’s Dinner Party; and Emma — a reworking of the classic Jane Austen novel. This year there will also be a stunning book on Edinburgh, A Work of Beauty: Alexander McCall Smith’s Edinburgh. Earlier stand alone novels include La’s Orchestra Saves the World and Trains and Lovers: A Hearts Journey.
Alexander is also the author of collections of short stories, academic works and over thirty books for children. He has received numerous awards for his writing, including the British Book Awards Author of the Year Award in 2004 and a CBE for service to literature in 2007. He holds honorary doctorates from nine universities in Europe and North America. In March of 2011 he received an award from the President of Botswana for his services through literature to that country.
Alexander McCall Smith lives in Edinburgh. He is married to a doctor and has two daughters.
