A review by kmg365
The Strange Case of the Moderate Extremists by Alexander McCall Smith

3.0

Three and a half stars.

It's difficult to explain the appeal of this series. It's funny, but not in a laugh-out-loud way-- no jokes, just a very high whimsy quotient. It's a police procedural... barely. In this particular short story/novella, there were no arrests made, no stakeouts, and no trials. Ulf Varg is about as soft-boiled as a detective could be. One of the two cases Ulf works on isn't even officially a case, but a favor to his brother, who is a politician with the Moderate Extremist party. Please do not confuse them with their nemesis copycat party, the Extreme Moderates, those scalawags. There's something relentlessly pleasant about this Scandinavian Blanc genre, as Smith has dubbed it. I'm plowing straight ahead into The Talented Mr. Varg now.