Keep Those Fingers Flying

It was at the suggestion of author-blogger Sarah Weinman, when she still lived in London, that I entered the world of Alexander McCall Smith. That’s right--me, the hard-boiled fiction enthusiast. Sarah and I met Smith at the inaugural Harrogate Crime Festival back in 2003, and I spent a fine afternoon talking and interviewing him.

As fellow scientists (McCall Smith is former member of UNESCO’s International Bioethics Commission and former vice chairman of the United Kingdom’s Human Genetics Commission), he and I have kept in contact ever since. The trusty Telegraph recently ran an interesting piece in which it was reported that, among other things, McCall Smith--or “Sandy,” as he prefers to be addressed--can write 1,000 words an hour (which must explain his muscular hands). This year he’s had an amazing four books published, including Blue Shoes and Happiness, the seventh installment in his best-selling No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series. Blue Shoes finds the “traditionally built” Precious Ramotswe--the first female detective in Botswana--having to cope with a snake, a diet, and the sometimes peculiar modern behavior of her sidekick, Grace Makutsi.

If you haven’t tried McCall Smith’s novels yet, rest assured that even a fan of hard-boiled fiction can find them fascinating.