I found Espresso Tales to be bolder and funnier than 44 Scotland Street. The central characters in McCall Smith’s work continue to be beautifully drawn – each one of them is so complete, with a full set of very flaws and many saving graces. McCall Smith’s novels are a marvelous way to learn more about contemporary city life in Edinburgh – the cast of characters, and their interaction is such a telling commentary on current social mores. The expatriate Scot, the Aberdeenian in Edinburgh, the ‘ladies who lunch’, to name a few, all form a delightful set of protagonists.

McCall Smith’s great strength is in creating empathy. He makes his characters and their experiences understandable to people across the world. Robert Ian Mackenzie’s gift is in transforming the written word to spoken magic. His reading transports you to Waverly Station or the Cumberland Bar or even perhaps to a nudist party! Highly recommended!
Rating: 4 / 5

All the residents of 44 Scotland Street are interesting characters to read about, from narcissistic Bruce to wise Domenica to thoughtful Pat, even to Irene Pollock’s detached statistician husband, Stuart. It is the human foibles and antics of these folks in the Scotland Street flat in Edinburgh’s fair city who keep us readers enthralled in this series. We care about each of them to one extent or another and want to know what’s going to happen to each of them. That is, after all, what good storytelling is about. This author completely and totally draws us in.

As the proud owner of all of McCall Smith’s books, I expect to read them many times over during the years ahead. I do hope that one day (soon?) we will have the opportunity to learn more about those quirky folks in the sausage dog stories. I adore the humor, however opaque, in each of them. There are none others like them anywhere in literature.

Carolyn Rowe Hill

Rating: 5 / 5

Although I had not previously read any of the “44-Scotland Street” novels, I expected the intriguing characters, subtle but satisfying humor and engaging plots ubiquitous in the “#1 Ladies Detective Agency” books.

Instead, other than 6-year old Bertie, a clever and delightful boy, I found the characters boring and not unlike the very-ordinary-to-the-point-of-mind-numbing people in Ann Tyler novels. The wonderful bits of dry British wit (e.g., Ramsey’s dreary memoirs, the boy named Tofu and the pursuits of his parents, and Bruce’s conceit and utter lack of introspection) were sprinkled far too sparsely to keep the novel moving along.

I assumed the title of the novel was indicative of the lift one gets from a cup of espresso, not that the reader would do well to fortify himself/herself with several cups of espresso to get through it! The book would make a great gift for bedtime reading insomniacs, or for readers who appreciate good British literature but don’t necessarily read for entertainment.
Rating: 2 / 5