Scandi-Blanc: A more philosophical type of investigation, guest review

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The Department of Sensitive Crimes by Alexander McCall Smith

How would you imagine Scandi-Blanc crime to be? Certainly not the moody, dark and ominous stuff of Scandi-noir. The colleagues of the Department of Sensitive Crimes, part of the police department in Malmö, Sweden, are kind and caring – not a vice-riddled copper amongst them. And lo and behold – they all get on well, perhaps too well in one particular case. Ulf Varg, nominally the head of the Department of Sensitive Crimes (but only marginally the head in what is a very egalitarian team after all) is a caring detective and one can describe the ´criminals´ he uncovers as particularly lucky to have found someone so genuinely nice as their arresting policeman.

So, if you have had your fill of hard-core social problems, mayhem and stomach-churning violence then maybe you will be ready for a gentler mode of crime. Ulf and his colleagues uncover a knee-stabber, a nasty bout of bullying and a possible werewolf in their cases – so scandi-blanc it might be – but it does cover all the bases!

Alexander McCall Smith once again brings his own particular take and flavour to these novels – never one for attempting to emulate the norms of crime, he creates a new genre and makes it his own. So pick up ´The Department of Sensitive Crimes´ and discover Scandi-Blanc – an undoubted revelation!

(Sylvia Campbell)

Alexander McCall Smith is the recipient of numerous awards for his writing, but he is probably most famous for his Number 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency set in Botswana. The Department of Sensitve Crimes was first published in March 2019 by Little, Brown (£18.99)

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