The Department of Sensitive Crimes

Written by Alexander McCall Smith

Narrated by David Rintoul

From the beloved and bestselling author of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series comes a lighthearted comedic novel about a Swedish police department tasked with solving the most unusual, complicated, and, often, insignificant crimes. The detectives who work in Malmo Police's Department of Sensitive Crimes take their job very seriously. The lead detective, Ulf Varg, prioritizes his cases above even his dog's mental health. Then there are detectives Anna Bengsdotter, who keeps her relationship with Varg professional even as she realizes she's developing feelings for him . . . or at least for his car, and Carl Holgersson, first to arrive in the morning and last to leave, who would never read his colleagues' personal correspondence--unless it could help solve a crime, of course. Finally, there's Erik Nykvist, who peppers conversations with anecdotes about fly fishing. Along with an opinionated local police officer named Blomquist, the Department of Sensitive Crimes takes on three extremely strange cases. First, the detectives investigate how and why a local business owner was stabbed . . . in the back of the knee. Next, a young woman's imaginary boyfriend goes missing. And, in the final investigation, Varg must determine whether nocturnal visitations at a local spa have a supernatural element. Using his renowned wit and warmth, Alexander McCall Smith brings a unique perspective on Scandinavian crime. Equal parts hilarious and heartening, The Department of Sensitive Crimes is a tour de farce from a literary master.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Apr 16, 2019
• ISBN: 9781980031949

Alexander McCall Smith

Alexander McCall Smith is the author of the award-winning series The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency, and he now devotes his time to the writing of fiction, including the 44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie series. He is the author of over eighty books on a wide array of subjects, and his work has been translated into forty-six languages. Before becoming a full-time writer he was for many years Professor of Medical Law at Edinburgh.

Reviews for The Department of Sensitive Crimes

[Trevor Wedding · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Odd little book but loved the characters and the way it was written. Loved the guy reading it too. Very excited to listen to more of Ulf’s mystery’s!

[MLJS-piano · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I laughed out loud a lot! Subtle but very funny. A marvelous beginning, i look forward to more in this series!

[heather land · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very informative on everyday thoughts. Loved the characters in the department of sensitive crimes

[g33kgrrl · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

What a very weird book. Just so much.... filler.

[hardlyhardy · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Alexander McCall Smith, that master of soft-boiled crime novels, began a new series in 2019 with the publication of “The Department of Sensitive Crimes,” set not in Botswana or Scotland but Sweden. It never becomes clear exactly what constitutes a "sensitive crime," but Ulf Varg (a name that means "wolf wolf," we are told) and his team investigate cases involving a man stabbed behind the knee, a young woman suspected of killing her imaginary boyfriend and a possible werewolf. These cases are handled with relative ease, so as with McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, the main interest becomes the lives of the detectives themselves.Varg and Anna Bengtsdotter, one of his detectives, are in love with each other, a fact complicated by the fact that Anna is married. They are both honorable enough to keep their relationship strictly professional, yet their true feelings for each other have a way of leaking through. Although he much prefers the company of Anna, Varg must sometimes work with a talkative uniformed officer named Blomquist, whom by the end of the novel is made an official part of his team. Varg is simply too polite to raise an objection.As in the author's other novels, the story meanders at an easy pace. No one ever seems to be in a rush. Sensitive crimes will apparently wait until someone gets around to them. Insight and intuition mean more than actual evidence.All this is quite pleasurable, perhaps not as much fun as the Precious Ramotswe stories but good enough to entice many readers back for more.

[jeanbmac · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I'm so glad we have another series by Alexander McCall Smith. This one featuring the male, Swedish equivalent of Botswana's Mma Ramotswe. Keep them coming, Mr. Smith. Both detectives exemplify the best of human nature, and the books are uplifting are a joy to read.

[sheiladeeth_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

My husband loves Nordic noir, so I thought perhaps I should try a book of Nordic light, as told by Alexander McCall Smith. Poking gentle fun at the genre, the story introduces a detective with “issues,” his married love interest, bizarre crimes, and a posse of foolish teenagers. Plus there’s a dog whose health might be in danger, strange neighbors, and the inevitable tortuous pathways. The path by which you have come, we learn, “is, of course, the path that you can always trust to take you back to where you belong.” So yes, there are fascinating aphorisms too.Dialog is stilted in the most civilized manner, and behaving Swedishly might have something to do with being civil to other people. Ulf Warg is most certainly civil, even when profiling cars and investigating barracks. He also enjoys flashes of brilliance, solves the occasional crime, has sympathy for the aggrieved, and loves his dog. Sometimes he uses words that might not be pc, but he’ll correct them; he’ll discuss what words should have been used; and all will be well in the end.I like McCall Smith’s Ladies’ Detective Agency and Scotland books, and I enjoyed this one too. Whether I’ll get hooked on the series remains to be seen.Disclosure: I was waiting for the paperback to come out.

[tatoosh-3 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

It would be misleading to outline the plot of “The Department of Sensitive Crimes” because the plot is not particularly important. Rather, “Sensitive Crimes” is a literary work in which character development and intricate description are the primary goals. It’s true that some crimes are “investigated:” a stabbing in the back of the knee, a mistaken missing person report, a fraudulent missing person report, and mysterious noises at a spa. The actual investigations are described in minimal detail, however, and the author evinces little interest in the mysteries or their solution.“Sensitive Crimes” falls between a straightforward and a stream of consciousness narrative, but it closer to the latter. Characters, their thoughts, incidental details, and other esoterica are the primary focus. For example, when asked a question the respondent may provide a few words of the answer, followed by a couple of paragraphs to a couple of pages of digression before the rest of the response is provided. An interesting but puzzling feature of the book is the manner in which the Swedish characters are depicted. They seem obsessively horrified that they might possibly say or do something that would make another person uncomfortable. This fear often occupies their thoughts and influences their actions. I’ve been to Sweden but my interactions with Swedes were not extensive nor intimate enough for me to determine whether this is a literary conceit or a genuine feature of the typical Swedish personality.In any event, the “The Department of Sensitive Crimes” is a bit of a bore and I’m not inclined to read another by this author.

[bookboy804 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent! All the hallmarks of another wonderful Alexander McCall Smith series: humour, humanity, quirky characters and situations, lovely writing. Makes me smile all over. In an age of bullies and buffoons, McCall Smith provides a civil, safe space of gentle humor and humanity.

[triscuit_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

McCall Smith brings his keen eye for cultural manners and attitudes to Sweden, and 2 very different policemen who work in a specialized division, solving oddly difficult crimes. As akways with this author, a kind and funny book with characters I'd love to meet.

[annbury_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I read this novel because a) I liked most of the author's "Ladies Detective Agency" books, and b) I like Nordic noir. Some of the good things about the author's earlier books are still in evidence. The characters are interesting, and (mostly) likable, there is an undertone of humor, and the writing is good. But a lot of the charm of the "Ladies Detective Books" had to do with their setting in Botswana, an unusual and interesting locale. Sweden is also interesting, but for many detective fanciers -- myself included -- it is hardly unusual, nor does it seem to me that the author has much to add on the topic. More fundamentally, the book is less a novel than a series of short (and overlapping) stories linked by common characters. The stories aren't consequential, and the whole doesn't add up to more than the sum of its parts. Not quite a waste of time, but something of a disappointment.

[mlhershey · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Quirky but enjoyable. Swedish version of McCall's African detective.

[brangwinn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Just like comfort food, there is comfort books, and McCall Smith excels in writing them. Quirky characters who are quite real and interesting plot turns make this an enjoyable read. And like his other books, the philosophical and moral issues encountered by the characters reflect those of the readers.

[dsc73277 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Superb light entertainment. I've never been primarily interested in crime fiction as means of exploring evil or wrong-doing. One of the things I like about some "police procedurals" is what they reveal about hierarchical and bureaucratic work places, often ringing true about working life in other contexts. That's why I particular enjoyed this humorous section:"Somewhere in the organisation, high in its upper reaches, were minds that churned out page after page of guidance notes, instructions and policy statements. Most of these were filed and forgotten; seldom did they make any difference to the way in which people carried out their duties. But the procedure for procedures had to be gone through, in accordance with further procedural guidelines."This was an acual "laugh out loud" moment for me, so much so that I can even forgive the 'crime' (in my view) of starting a sentence with "but".

[john_warner-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

If you have read and enjoyed this author’s The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, I believe you will enjoy the inaugural entry in the Detective Varg series. I only read the first novel in the aforementioned series, but the type of crimes appear similar to what I remember. The crimes investigated in both are not heinous crimes such as serial killer or brutal murders of passion. For example, in this novel, Detective Ulf “the Wolf” Varg investigates three potential crimes. One is the stabbing of a kiosk owner in the back of his knee by an unseen assailant. The second involves the investigation into the disappearance of an imaginary woman’s boyfriend. The final investigation may have supernatural underpinnings as the suspect has a propensity of howling during the full moon.These quirky cases are augmented by even quirkier conversations between Varg and a local loquacious police officer who has never met a topic that he doesn’t have an opinion. I found these conversations to be the best part of the book. The novel was okay, but I doubt I will read any further books in this series.

[clara53_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

After Botswana and Scotland (and the immense appeal of those series), McCall Smith goes to Sweden in this debut installment of his new series! Here, as well, he continues to be a perspicacious student of human nature. The new protagonist, Ulf Varg, the detective in Sensitive Crimes Division, possesses undeniable magnetism. His small team of co-workers completes the picture - each one with his/her own individual quirks of personality and life story. A charming side theme on dogs. And a very witty, humorous, and quite credible take on how easy it is for many of us to get off track and onto other subjects while conversing. In general, in this day and age, it's a relief to read McCall Smith and see that in human affairs so much is not really a tragedy but just the way life is...

[janerawoof · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Quick, humorous, and enjoyable, a gentle parody of the Scandinavian noir genre of mysteries. This involves a team of Swedish policemen [and -woman] who investigate "sensitive crimes". These are ones not investigated by the regular police department. The team is led by Detective Ulf Varg [Wolf Wolf] and a policewoman with two clerks. A talkative [usually about nothing of consequence] policeman from another department aids them. Each has a whimsical personality. Any solutions to the cases-- the first a stabbing behind a victim's knee, another involving an imaginary boyfriend and a third concerning strange goings-on at a spa owned by the cousin of the Police Commissioner -- are not as important as the attempts to solve the cases, the interpersonal relationships, and philosophizing, which is often poignant. A delightful treat of, as the author has termed it: "Scandi blanc."Highly recommended.

[brianewilliams · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

My thanks to Penguin Random House Canada and Netgalley for my review copy of this eBook. The comments below are my own.This is the debut for a new series by the prolific Scottish author Alexander McCall Smith. The story is set in present day Sweden and features a branch of a local police force called the Sensitive Crimes Department. It takes cases from other branches of the force which are deemed to need complicated investigation. The department is staffed by Ulf Varg and three colleagues: Anna, Carl and Erik. Blomquist, a cop from the regular police force is a recurring presence in the book. All are well drawn and have their individual quirks, as do most of the people encountered in the story. Varg does a good job of narrating the story and he is a likeable protagonist. It's a good ensemble for a continuing series.This story uses McCall Smith's trademark structure of a series of related episodes, more than a simple flow of consciousness but not the usual "beginning, middle and end" story progression. That is an attractive strength of Smith's stories, including this one. A weakness in this story is the "ending", which is not really an ending. A couple of the resolutions of episodes in the story are frankly puzzling. Closing the book you might think;|"What was that all about?". In my case I initially thought there was a missing chapter or two at the end, but a double check did not turn up any. I found it an unsatisfactory and disappointing conclusion.I can recommend the book on the basis that anything McCall Smith writes is worthwhile reading, although some of his work is better than this book.