Alexander McCall Smith

Alexander McCall Smith is an academic who writes Fiction books specifically crime fiction. He also writes children’s books and academic non-fiction books. Alexander McCall Smith’s Life The author was born in Bulawayo, which was a British colony at the time.

The best place to start is the Young Corgi series, the earliest of Alexander McCall Smith's multi-book series: it opens with Alix and the Tigers (1988) and runs to 3 books across 1988–1990, ending with The Tin Dog (1990). Alexander McCall Smith's other series stand alone, so they can be read in any order.

Alexander McCall Smith has 230 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1980 and 2026. 157 of them belong to 22 named series — the largest being the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series with 27 books — and 73 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.

Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. Alexander McCall Smith's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are Young Corgi (1988–1990, 3 books), Harriet Bean (1990–1993, 3 books) and Akimbo (1992–2008, 5 books), plus 18 more.

This guide splits Alexander McCall Smith's 230 books into 22 named series and 73 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (27 books, 1998–2026); 44 Scotland Street (19 books, 2005–2026); Isabel Dalhousie (16 books, 2004–2026); Writers on Writers (8 books, 2009–2020); Professor Dr. Von Igelfeld (6 books, 2003–2026), plus 17 further series.