Chance Developments: Stories

From the bestselling author of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series comes this splendid collection. Inspired by vintage photographs, these five lyrical stories capture the surprising intersections of love and friendship that alter life's journeys. 

A smiling girl leading a younger girl astride a pony, and a boy in a kilt on a tricycle beside them, gives rise to a story of a lifelong romance between the two riders. A dapper, roguish-looking man perching on a lady's knee sparks the story of a ventriloquist and an animal handler who work in a circus, and who, under the most delightfully unexpected circumstances, fall in love. The image of a woman haloed by light in a train station becomes the lighthearted tale of a nun's decision to leave the sisterhood and discover what the big city has to offer. Charming and poignant, this collection brims with the flourishes of grace and humor that could only come from the pen of Alexander McCall Smith.


(With black-and-white photographs throughout.)

• The Department of Sensitive Crimes: A Detective Varg Novel
• The Good Pilot Peter Woodhouse: A Novel
• The Quiet Side of Passion: An Isabel Dalhousie Novel (12) (Isabel Dalhousie Series)
• The House of Unexpected Sisters: No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (18) (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Series)
• To the Land of Long Lost Friends: No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (20) (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Series)
• The Colors of All the Cattle: No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (19) (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Series)
• My Italian Bulldozer: A Paul Stuart Novel (1)
• A Distant View of Everything: An Isabel Dalhousie Novel (11) (Isabel Dalhousie Series)
• A Time of Love and Tartan (44 Scotland Street Series)
• The Second-Worst Restaurant in France: A Paul Stuart Novel (2)