Product Description

Amateur sleuth Isabel Dalhousie is a philosopher who also uses her training to solve unusual mysteries. Isabel is Editor of the Review of Applied Ethics - which addresses such questions as 'Truth telling in sexual relationships' - and she also hosts The Sunday Philosophy Club at her house in Edinburgh. Behind the city's Georgian facades its moral compasses are spinning with greed, dishonesty and murderous intent. Instinct tells Isabel that the young man who tumbled to his death in front of her eyes at a concert in the Usher Hall didn't fall. He was pushed. With Isabel Dalhousie Alexander McCall Smith introduces a new and pneumatic female sleuth to tackle murder, mayhem - and the mysteries of life. As her hero WH Auden maintained, classic detective fiction stems from a desire for an uncorrupted Eden which the detective, as an agent of God, can return to us. But then Isabel, being a philosopher, has a thing or two to say about God as well.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5326 in Books
• Published on: 2005-06-13
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Review
'The No. 2 Lady Detective... anyone who loves Precious cannot fail to be charmed' Mail on Sunday 'Isabel Dalhousie's charm is undeniable' Sunday Times

The Herald
‘Sets up Isabel Dalhousie as Edinburgh’s latest, and most engaging investigator.’ The Herald

Mail on Sunday
‘Cannot fail to be charmed.’

Customer Reviews

a super start
Whereas McCall's delightful character, Precious Ramotswe, views the world in a rather simplistic, "black-and-white" way, in "The Sunday Philosophy Club we are presented with Miss Dalhousie, whose perspective on the world is far more intellectual, governed by her enthusiasm for philosophy, and as the editor of an erudite publication entitled, "Journal of Applied Ethics". She sees plenty of moral dilemmas around her, very much a consequence of her philosophical approach to life.

She is both fascinated and concerned with those people she meets in her daily life. A sub-plot involving her niece draws out the empathy she feels towards others. In the main plot, as a chance observer to a violent death, this Scots lady finds herself being drawn by default rather than design into detective work. She is determined to get to the bottom of this awful tragedy, which is resolved quite beautifully in the final few pages.

This is not the ending that the reader would expect if Precious were in charge of this case, which is just as well if McCall wants us to view them as different characters, and not in competition. They are indeed quite different, and McCall succeeds admirably in beginning to present us with a very believable and likeable person in Miss Dalhousie. He seems to want the reader to remain guessing about much of her personality, giving just enough to make her appear "solid" and real, yet also tantalising about other aspects of her personality. At times she seems a "40-something going on 80" , her behaviour appearing to be that of someone much older, yet we also hear her musing about the possible romantic and sexually charged feelings she may have towards her niece's ex-boy friend. Little is mentioned about the "Sunday Philosophy Club" itself, but no doubt Alexander McCall Smith will fill in these frustrating gaps in further episodes with this intriguing lady.

This book was a joy to read, and I look forward to the next instalment.

Isabel isn't Precious!
Mma Ramotswe was always going to be a hard act to follow and, wisely, Alexander McCall Smith has set his new series as far away from Botwana as possible. I anticipated that his new heroine would share some of Precious Ramotswe's intuitive understanding of human nature. However, Isabel Dalhousie is an academic - a philosopher, much give to musing over the dicta of Hume, Kant et al. Quite hard for the ordinary reader to relate to. She's a very privileged woman, even by the standards of Morningside (the 'posh' part of Edinburgh) where ladies who lunch lurk behind the net curtains and no-one would be seen dead sending their kids to a state school! The world of academe, the law and high finance is a far cry from the dusty streets of Gaborone - so why did this Scots reviewer feel so much less at home in the Scottish capital?

The characters seem to me to lack warmth (mind you, so does Edinburgh) and his ear for dialogue seems to have deserted the author, even in Isabel's exchanges with her beloved niece, Cat. Even in Edinburgh, surely they don't use the impersonal 'one' all the time! There is quite a lot of interior monologue with the heroine mulling over the situation and thinking about her past (not all past) love of a husband long gone to California. The one character who, I thought, had the potential for development and more humorous treatment, is Grace, Isabel's housekeeper, devoted to her employer and to Cat, but never mincing words or shrinking from expressing an opinion - also a severe critic of Edinburgh's public transport!

In short, I was disappointed with this novel because I couldn't relate to the characters, nor could I get excited by the plot which wended a rather wearisome way through the novel and was occasionally lost sight of completely while Isabel interfered with her niece's love life.

The Sunday Philosphy Club
This was a superb book from begining to end. Contrary to the other reviews posted here, I found the book engaging and perfectly paced. The characters are sympathetic, human and vivid. The most refreshing aspect of this book, something that it shares with the Mma Ramotwe series, is the variety of moral and ethical dilemas faced by the main characters, engendering a moral framework with which to measure ones own life. The book is thought provoking and philosophically enlightening.