Books to Sleep With

Take any of McCall Smith’s books to bed. I promise you will have better dreams.

The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series has long been a favorite of mine. The books are just so lovely. I like to read before I fall asleep and mysteries are my favorite – but a grisly murder mystery is not always what you want to read just before bed. Enter McCall Smith, who I suspect is the most optimistic person on the planet.

All the Precious Ramotswe (the hero of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency books) books are EXCELLENT. They are not gritty or heart-stopping. They are heart-reinforcing. Read them in print – delightful. Listen to them on audio – narrator Lisette Lecat is perfect. She makes the humor sparkle. If you want an even more wholesome treat, listen to The Mystery of the Missing Lion and The Mystery of Meerkat Hill, two Precious Ramotswe Mysteries for Young Readers.

These books are like getting together with an old, dear friend. It is a place you want to visit. The prose is gentle and thoughtful and the observations about people feel true.

The characters are people I want to know. Their homes are places I would like to visit.

The Department of Sensitive Crimes is the first book in a new series set in Sweden. It has the same generous, optimistic spirit with some slightly darker humor. Sweden is slightly less of a vibrant character than Botswana is in the Ramotswe books.

I enjoyed it a little bit less, but I think I was just missing Precious and Grace.

A mystery book with no bodies may sound like it will be boring. And it will be for some. But I like the substance you find in a book that explores relationships and heartbreak and carefully, gently and with the best intentions, sets things to rights.

Ulf stood quite still. Then he bent down, patted Martin reassuringly on the head and took him back along the path by which they had come – which is, of course, the path that you can always trust to take you back to where you belong.

The Department of Sensitive Crimes by Alexander McCall Smith