Publishers Weekly
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Smith's spirited 12th 44 Scotland Street novel (after 2017's The Bertie Project) sees the residents of Edinburgh's Scotland Street and their associates grapple with domestic problems great and small. Anthropologist Domenica Macdonald wonders about the viability of her marriage to artist Angus Lordie while preparing for a visit from Rwandan pygmies; government statistician Stuart Pollock faces intense competition for a promotion and a difficult wife with other priorities in Aberdeen; art gallery assistant Pat Macgregor finds it hard to shake an egotistical ex-boyfriend who has plans for her; and gallery owner Matthew Duncan deals with the fallout of an uncomfortable encounter with his former English teacher and the demands of his two-year-old triplets. Meanwhile, Stuart's seven-year-old son, Bertie, makes a significant discovery in Drummond Place Gardens and contends with his know-it-all classmate, Olive. Despite the lack of any mystery, fans of Smith's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series will enjoy the stimulating and often comic company of Scotland Street's inviting neighbors. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Momentous crises loom for several denizens of 44 Scotland St. and environsand this time, a few of them find momentous resolutions.As 7-year-old Bertie Pollock submits meekly to more rounds of abuse by his horrid classmate, Olive, his statistician father, Stuart, is angling for a big promotion that pits him against two strident but incompetent women, and his formidable mother, Irene, is plotting to leave Edinburgh to begin a Ph.D. program in Aberdeen with her sometime lover, psychiatrist-turned-professor Hugo Fairbairn. Bruce Anderson, God's gift to women, has a bizarre proposal to offer his old girlfriend Pat Macgregor, who, despite her acute awareness of his hopeless narcissism, can't help being smitten with him all over again. Pat's boss, gallery owner Matthew, and his wife, Elspeth, fret over replacing their triplet sons' unsuitable Danish au pairs, whom they fired for cause (The Bertie Project, 2017)and Matthew's attempt to avoid an embarrassing meeting with his old teacher Mrs. Patterson Cowie lands him in trouble with the police. Anthropologist Domenica MacDonald wonders whether she really loves her bridegroom, painter Angus Lordie, or whether she's just going through the motions for the sake of quiet and convenience. The author's special gift in this long-running franchise is to take each of these moral dilemmas equally seriously, so it's anyone's guess which of them will turn out to be consequential and which merely agreeably vexing.Shorter and less digressive than earlier installments, with most of the complications wrapped up in an even more suspiciously tidy way than usual. But readers who've come to know and love these characters can only rejoice in their rescue from trivial problems that can suddenly balloon to monstrous size. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

*Starred Review* Here is another charmer in the 44 Scotland Street series, which has been bubbling along merrily as a serial in The Scotsman and then in novel form for 12 years. Smith's turf here is Edinburgh, branching off from an apartment building at 44 Scotland Street, where the action first began, into other flats and houses as some of the characters moved out. But it's still the high-class tenement on Scotland Street in Edinburgh's New Town that holds the characters together, especially since it's the home of Bertie, a seven-year-old boy who serves as the heart and soul of the series, a boy with a tyrannical mother (overinvolved and overscheduling) who yearns to turn 18 and move to Glasgow, his ideal of freedom. This particular installment is an especially exciting one for fans of the series, as what's been brewing over the past few novels is now boiling over. Characters who seemed stuck come gloriously unstuck; one character who has sworn off an irresistibly handsome bad man falls under his spell again; characters take stock and take leave. This isn't the time to pay Scotland Street a visit for the first time. Too much depends on having watched the characters struggle and grow through the previous 11 novels. Longtime fans of this series, however, will find this latest a wow of an installment.--Fletcher, Connie Copyright 2018 Booklist