I love Bertie and I love the setting. In this volume McCall Smith describes Edinburgh in such detail, it was a vicarious revisit for me. It's a city I really love except in July and August when it is overwhelmed with tourists. Nonetheless, it is a city chock full of history and interesting people.
McCall Smith ends every Bertie book with the reader questioning "what's next"? I can only say his mother Irene continues to be extremely unlikeable and even her family is questioning what life would be like without her. Stuart finally figures out she is kind of a Stalinist in her pronouncements about everything and everybody. There is a young woman studying for a PhD in 20th century Scottish poetry. Being a lover of poetry I vowed to read a lot more Scottish poetry. For me, this was the best Bertie yet! I needed something light, and this delivered.