"Jess needs a fresh start. She's broke and alone, and she's just left her job under less than ideal circumstances. Her half-brother Ben didn't sound thrilled when she asked if she could crash with him for a bit, but he didn't say no, and surely everything will look better from Paris. Only when she shows up, to find a very nice apartment, (could Ben really have afforded this?) he's not there. The longer Ben stays missing, the more Jess starts to dig...

44 SCOTLAND STREET - Book 1

The residents and neighbors of 44 Scotland Street and the city of Edinburgh come to vivid life in these gently satirical, wonderfully perceptive serial novels, featuring six-year-old Bertie, a remarkably precocious boy—just ask his mother.  
Welcome to 44 Scotland Street, home to some of Edinburgh's most colorful characters. There's Pat, a twenty-year-old who has recently moved

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While precocious 6-year-old Bertie seeks to escape his overbearing mother by joining the Cub Scouts, Matthew resolves to meet the challenges of married life and Cyril succumbs to romantic temptation.

Stil enduring psychotherapy, the precocious Bertie gets a chance to escape when he joins a junior orchestra trip to Paris--wher he is accidentally left behind. Never fear for Bertie, though. He quickly finds the silver lining by making friends with students at the Sorbonne. Meanwhile, Domenica MacDonald heads to the Malacca Straits, where she intends to study the economic structure of contemporary pirate culture. And in Edinburgh, Pat entertains a...

"The great city of Edinburgh is renowned for its impeccable restraint, so how, then, did the extended family of 44 Scotland Street come to be trembling on the brink of reckless self-indulgence? Bertie is--finally!--about to turn seven. But one afternoon he mislays his meddling mother Irene, and learns a valuable lesson: wish-fulfillment can be a dangerous business. Angus and Domenica contemplate whether to give in to romance on holiday in Italy, and...