Michelle Blanchard Ardillo

Being Louisiana born and bred, especially in southeast Louisiana where oyster fishermen have made their living for decades on an oyster boat, when I saw the title of this new book pop up in NetGalley, I just had to request it. Seeing though, that it was book #6 in a series where I had not read any of the previous books, I knew I would need some background.

So, I turned to my trusty Libby app to download a copy of book #1 so I could get a sense of this series.

Now, after reading book #6, I think I need to go back and read books #2-5 as well.

I enjoyed Portuguese Irregular Verbs, but I LOVED The Lost Language of Oysters!

As I wrote in my review of Portuguese Irregular Verbs, I am hot/cold on Alexander McCall Smith as an author. I have loved some of his novels and others I have struggled to connect with. I had no issues with this most recent one, however.

McCall Smith is clever, very very clever, and his writing shows that. His vocabulary, his sentence structure, his casual use of references to Greek mythology, foreign languages, and cultural customs of ancient civilizations is amazing. Sometimes that sort of thing interferes with moving the story forward. And, maybe that is what kept me from connecting with some of his other series.

The Lost Language of Oysters has just been published in the US (Vintage, February 2026). Vintage Publishing is an imprint of Penguin Random House, which publishes some of my most favorite books these days.

It features our main cast of characters from book #1 but added to that we get a pair of female visiting professors from Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana! The visitors, Professor Pom Pom Boisseau (apparently you CAN make this stuff up) and Professor Alice Martinique are best friends who belong to a ladies biker club. At home they ride Harleys but they have rented Ducatis for their stay at the University of Regensburg in Germany.

The sight of two women arriving at the prestigious the Institute of Romance Philology wearing leather jumpsuits and sitting astride matching Ducatis is almost too much for the staid and stuffy Germans watching from the windows of their offices. Their offices, as with any other institution, educational or otherwise, is a significant sign of their individual prestige within such organization. This simple fact comes into play later in the book.

The ongoing rivalry among these professors is also very common. Who has published what? Who has been invited to a conference where? Who has the best office? Who sits in the best chair in the coffee room?

McCall Smith in general does a great job at recreating the sort of thing that goes on in academia. One review I read said that he “skewers German academia” with this series. I’m not sure it is that severe, but I am enjoying the character development of the four or five returning characters now that I know a little of their backstory.

Being Louisiana natives who love gumbo, zydeco, and a cold beer, these women teach the Germans, especially the protagonist Professor Dr Dr von Iglefeld (which in German means “field of hedgehog”), a thing or two about life and living. Pom Pom, as she instructs the uber-formal Germans to call her, helps von Iglefeld through a particularly tricky situation with another professor hijacking some of his most prized academic work.

Loving this book as I have makes me question and rethink my opinions on McCall Smith’s other works, particularly the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series. As they say some books are just not for you at this time, and maybe it’s time I give McCall Smith’s other series another try!

As for this series, start with book #1 and even if it doesn’t earn 4 or 5 stars from you, do give book #6 a read, especially – and I can’t say this loudly enough – especially if you are from Louisiana!