The Man with the Silver Saab

Detective Varg, Book 3

By: Alexander McCall Smith

Narrated by: David Rintoul

Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's Summary

In the hilarious new novel in the best-selling Detective Varg series, an eminent art historian is framed and the ace investigators of the department of sensitive crimes are on the case.

Detective Ulf Varg is a man of refined tastes and quite familiar with the art scene in Malmö. So when art historian Anders Kindgren visits the Department of Sensitive Crimes to report a series of bizarre acts that have been committed against him, Ulf and his team swing into action. Fish stuffed into the vents of Kindgren’s car and a manipulated footnote in a recent publication would be cause enough for an investigation, but when a painting Kindgren had confidently appraised as genuine is later declared to be a fake, it’s clear that someone is out to tarnish his reputation.

Meanwhile, Ulf is also weathering personal issues, which quickly spiral out of control. When his lip-reading dog, Martin, engages in a contretemps with a squirrel that results in a grievous wound, Ulf must rush Martin to the veterinarian and weigh the merits of cosmetic surgery for animals. And later, when Martin’s blood is found in the back of Ulf’s classic Saab, Ulf finds himself the subject of a departmental investigation.

In the end, Ulf will have to muster all his detective skills and bureaucratic cunning to restore Kindgren’s reputation - as well as his own.  

©2021 Alexander McCall Smith (P)2021 Recorded Books Inc.

I love Detective Varg!

By the second book in this series I was hooked! Please write more Mr McCall!

Just What the Doctor (in this case veterinarian) Ordered

Hit the spot during these troubling times. Reader was exemplar and story was fun to follow.

Sublime

Sensitively written, sensitively performed...with a dash of the perfect amount of dry humor. At times I cried laughing. Thank you, as always!

Valium Replacement book

I have only listened to a little of this one and will try to force myself to finish it sometime.
The narrator’s voice is soporific. Droning on. I listened to am immensely tedious discussion among the protagonist’s colleagues about “ Siamese twins” that followed from someone harming Siamese cats while trying to steal them for resale. Laff riot! Not. It’s offensive when most people know that modern medicine refers to these people as conjoined twins. Then we are treated to more animal cruelty as the detective slowly drives his injured dog to a vet while calmly philosophizing about the likelihood of the bleeding dog dying enroute.
Wordy, boring, and not amusing. Horrible, in fact.
More convinced than ever that the author blew his creative wad inventing Precious Ramotswe and the series I love. This is the second other unrelated series of his I have tried. The tedious Scottish one is merely boring. This one is nasty.

Not much to it!

I love both the author and the reader, but this story seemed to just be mostly navel gazing on the part of the protagonist, with not much story or plot.

Another Good Read in the Series

“The Man with the Silver SAAB” is another quality entertaining read in this series. Some what sad because it is the last story o this series just as I was becoming comfortable with the writing style and the characters. Highly recommend for reading pleasure and the quality of the writing, story, and characters. Experienced as an Audio book.