“If there was one thing you learned in the Department of Sensitive Crimes it was that the obvious solution was often misleading. Life was obvious, yes, but behind the obvious, the self-evident, there lay any number of other lively possibilities.”

The Strange Case of the Moderate Extremists is a kindle short in the Detective Varg series by popular British author, Alexander McCall-Smith. Swedish Detective Ulf Varg first appeared in the 2013 Valentine’s Day short story, Varg in Love. Now part of the Department of Sensitive Crimes, he works with a staff of three and deals with a number of interesting cases. Currently, his attention is on the apparent sabotage of the pre-sold litter of a pure-bred Champion Burmese owned by a breeder of Oriental cats, who has provided a list of likely suspects.

Meanwhile, Ulf’s younger brother, Bjorn, head of the right-wing Moderate Extremists Party, asks for his help. This creates a bit of a dilemma, as Bjorn’s political beliefs in no way align with his own. But his brother is after advice about a leak in the Party: information is somehow getting out to the Extreme Moderates Party. Before Ulf can do more than consider the situation, he learns something from an unexpected source.

Readers familiar with McCall Smith’s other detective series will agree that these books are not read for the crime solving aspect. Indeed, in this case, much of the policing is a little tongue-in-cheek. Rather, he uses them as an opportunity to comment on human behaviour, and to share his gentle philosophy with musings and observations like those that follow.

“People put far too much store on figures these days. They want inputs and outputs and so on, but what does any of that actually mean? Does it have any bearing - any bearing at all – on whether an outcome is good, bad or indifferent? Does it?” and
“There was a tendency, particularly amongst public figures, to confuse the categories of mistake and wrongdoing. People who had been caught out doing something egregiously wrong would often refer to having ‘made a mistake’. This made their actions seem less reprehensible; after all, mistakes are human, and usually pardonable.”

As well as using amusing and intriguing chapter titles (The Criminal Use of Laxatives, Merino Underpants), McCall Smith allows his characters to discuss or contemplate: conceptual art; the drawbacks of electric cars; overfishing; bring struck by a meteor; and errant brothers. The story also features Sweden’s only lip-reading dog. .Delightful, as always