From a Far and Lovely Country by Alexander McCall Smith

 (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #24)

240 pages

"This latest installment of the beloved No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series finds Botswana's premier detective agency as busy as ever, with no shortage of senstive situations requiring Mma Ramotswe's keen eye and discerning input. Through it all, Mma Ramotswe will demonstrate that there are solutions to all manner of difficulties, there to be discovered as long as one is led by kindness, grace, and logic, and can rely on the wise counsel of close friends and loved ones. Sometimes, she reminds us, the best solutions to life's problems can be found with a bit of good humor, generosity of spirit, and a steaming cup of red bush tea." -- from the publisher

Lovely and endearing and sweet to the soul. Happy sigh. One of my favorite quotes from the book, "...an important part of forgiveness was allowing the past to fade, like an old photograph exposed to the sun." Four out of five stars for me.

The Department of Sensitive Crimes by Alexander McCall Smith

 (Detective Varg #1)

240 pages / 7 hrs, 15 mins

"The Department of Sensitive Crimes is Scandinavian Blanc, vastly different from Scandinavian Noir. There is nothing noir about the world of Ulf Varg, Detective Inspector in the Sensitive Crimes Department of the Criminal Investigation Authority for the city of Malmö, Sweden. Ulf is concerned with odd, but not too threatening crimes, such as a stab wound to the back of the knee caused by an unknown hand, young women who allow their desperation for a boyfriend to get the better of them, and peculiar goings-on in a spa on Sweden's south coast.

"Of course, Ulf is a Swedish detective, and Swedish detectives, by convention, lead lives beset with problems of one sort or another. For a start, there is his name: Ulf means “wolf” in modern Swedish, and Varg derives from the Old Norse word for “wolf”. But his character is far from vulpine: Ulf is a sympathetic, well-educated, and likeable man, with a knowledge of and interest in Scandinavian- and modern art. He has a dog named Marten, the only dog in Sweden capable of lip-reading (but only in Swedish). Martin becomes depressed and needs treatment. Dogs in Sweden are apparently particularly prone to Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). But this is summer—so there must be something else going on.

"Ulf has a number of colleagues into whose lives we gain insight. There is Anna, married to an anaesthetist, but very fond of Ulf; Erik, whose sole interest is fishing; Carl, whose father is a famous Lutheran theologian who has written a book on Danish philosopher Kierkegaard; then there is Blomquist from the uniformed branch, who goes on and on about his health problems but seems to have extraordinary luck in investigations. There is also Ulf's psychotherapist, Dr. Svensson, whose observations on Ulf's life—and many other topics—enlightens...or possibly confuses." --from the publisher

This book is well written in an intriguing style. I like the characters and their quirky conversations. I give it four out of five stars.

The Joy and Light Bus Company by Alexander McCall Smith

 (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #22)

240 pages

"Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni attends a course hosted by the local chamber of commerce entitled “Where Is Your Business Going?” But rather than feeling energized, he comes back in low spirits, unsure how to grow the already venerable and successful Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors. Then an old friend from school approaches him about a new business venture that could be just the ticket. When it turns out he will need to mortgage his property in order to pursue this endeavor, Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi wonder what this will mean for his current business―as well as their own.

"Even as she puzzles over mysteries on the domestic front, Mma Ramotswe’s professional duties must take precedence. When a concerned son learns that his aging father’s nurse now stands to inherit the family home, he begins to doubt her intentions and takes his case to Botswana’s premier detective agency. Fortunately, Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi are committed agents of justice and agree to investigate.

"Tricky as these matters may be, Mma Ramotswe knows that the most creative solutions are often found with the support of loving friends and family. Working together over a cup of red bush tea, she and Mma Makutsi will rely on their tact, humor, and goodwill to ensure that all involved find the happiness that they deserve."    --from the publisher

Another delightful read, although the detective agency wasn't as active in this installment. Still, McCall Smith writes to my heart...I laughed out loud more than once and teared up a couple times. Happy sigh. I give it four out of five stars, which might be more than it deserves, but I just love this author.

How to Raise an Elephant by Alexander McCall Smith

 (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #21)

256 pages

"Precious Ramotswe loves her dependable old van. Yes, sometimes it takes a bit longer to get going now, and it has developed some quirks over the years, but it has always gotten the job done. This time, though, the world--and Charlie--may be asking too much of it, for when he borrows the beloved vehicle he returns it damaged. And, to make matters worse, the interior seems to have acquired an earthy smell that even Precious can't identify.

"But the olfactory issue is not the only mystery that needs solving. Mma Ramotswe is confronted by a distant relative, Blessing, who asks for help with an ailing cousin. The help requested is of a distinctly pecuniary nature, which makes both Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni and Mma Makutsi suspicious. And there is no peace at home, either, as the new neighbors are airing their marital grievances rather loudly. Still, Mma Ramotswe is confident that there are solutions to all of these difficulties, there to be discovered as long as she is led by kindness, grace, and logic, and can rely on the counsel of her friends and loved ones."  --from the publisher

Loved, loved, loved it! I was able to read most of it in one sitting, and it was like a mini-vacation. With so much grief and disappointment in 2020, and especially over the holidays, it was like a breath of fresh air. I give it five out of five stars. 

To the Land of Long Lost Friends by Alexander McCall Smith

To the Land of Long Lost Friends by Alexander McCall Smith
(No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency #20)
240 pages

"Mma Ramotswe has reconnected with an old friend who has been having problems with her daughter. ...The young woman appears to be involved with a charismatic preacher. But are his ministrations entirely of a godly nature?

"Elsewhere, Charlie is also struggling with a tricky matter of the heart. He wishes to propose to his girlfriend, Queenie-Queenie, but he's struggling to come up with a bride price that will impress her father. When Queenie-Queenie's brother offers to help by giving him a job, the offer may not be quite what Charlie expected."  --from the publisher

Another delightful installment in the series, but somewhat less complicated than most of the others.  I carried it around for a few days before starting it, because I knew it would be over too quickly.  Happy sigh.  Now I wait to see if AMS writes number 21.  I gave it four out of five stars.

The Second-Worst Restaurant in France by Alexander McCall Smith

The Second-Worst Restaurant in France: A Paul Stuart Novel by Alexander McCall Smith --- 245 pages.

Paul Stewart, the rather dour food writer from Edinburgh whom readers first met in My Italian Bulldozer,  struggling over his new book, The Philosophy of Food in Six Easy Chapters, a project he relishes but has to deliver in just six months. Unfortunately, Paul's current domestic arrangements are not conducive to the hard work of getting words down on the page. His agent and girl friend Gloria has moved in with him and has brought along two extremely vocal and demanding Siamese cats. Attempts to ameliorate the situation just make matters worse.  Paul worries that The Philosophy of Food will never be finished. Then his eccentric cousin Chloe comes to Paul's aid. Chloe persuades Paul to a radical course of action. She has taken a six-month lease on a house in a French village not far from Poitiers and invites him to join her there for the summer and finish his book in peace. Paul gives in to temptation and escapes to France.

Once there, however, Paul finds himself entangled all over again, this time in the village's only eating establishment: the infamous Second Worst Restaurant in France. Not McCall Smith's best effort, but even a relatively uninspired McCall Smith is still better than the best efforts of many other writers.

Click HERE to read the review in Kirkus.

Click HERE to read the review in the New York Journal of books.

The Second Worst Restaurant in France by Alexander McCall Smith

The Second Worst Restaurant in France by Alexander McCall Smith
(Paul Stuart #2)
256 pages

"Renowned cookbook writer Paul Stuart, renewed and refreshed from his time in Tuscany, has returned to Scotland to work on his new book, The Philosophy of Food in Six Easy Chapters. Writing, though, is complicated by Paul's changed domestic circumstances. His editor and new girlfriend, Gloria, has moved in with him despite not being specifically invited, and she's brought her two rather demanding Siamese cats. When Paul's cousin, Chloe, suggests Paul visit her in the French countryside, Paul jumps at the chance. However, once he arrives, he finds his fortunes tangled up with the infamous local restaurant that gives the book its title. In this story about a man who prides himself on his taste finding delight in the most unexpected places, we have Alexander McCall Smith at his most witty and charming."  --from the publisher

I'm sorry to say I'm a bit disappointed in this one.  Maybe my expectations were impossibly high since he is one of my favorite authors.  The story just didn't flow for me, and I started to wonder what it was supposed to be about.  I think if I had read it as a sort of "season in the life of" Paul Stuart I might have enjoyed his adventure with Chloe in this odd little French village.  I gave it three out of five stars.

The Department of Sensitive Crimes by Alexander McCall Smith

The Department of Sensitive Crimes: A Detective Varg Novel by Alexander McCall Smith --- 229 pages

Fans of Alexander McCall Smith will rejoice in the advent of a new series from this prolific author of gently humorous stories about the complicated lives of ordinary people trying hard to do the right thing.

On top of this, McCall Smith has added a layer of wry satire poking a little fun of the current fascination with Nordic Noir --- those dark and brooding Scandinavian crime novels that combine the stark landscapes of the far North with equally stark and brooding stories of horrific crime. McCall Smith's alternative has been dubbed "Scandi Blanc" by one waggish reviewer.

The tone is set from the start, with the inside jacket blurb sonorously announcing: "In the Swedish Criminal Justice System, certain cases are considered especially strange and difficult. In Malmö, the dedicated detectives who investigate these crimes are members of an elite squad known as the Sensitive Crimes Division. These are their stories."

 Detective Ulf Varg is the lead investigator in Malmö's Department of Sensitive Crimes. Like all Scandinavian detectives in fiction, he is divorced, guilt-ridden, and secretly pining for a married colleague, Anna, who is also unhappily married and secretly pining for Ulf. He is also burdened with a zealous street cop, Blomquist, who's determined to get promoted to Sensitive Crimes.  And if that's not enough,  Ulf is worried about the mental health of his hearing-impaired, lip-reading dog, Martin.

Ulf, along with his colleagues, is called upon to investigate several "sensitive crimes" in the course of this book. First, there's a bizarre attack on a market trader; then the abrupt disappearance of a young man who doesn't exist; then sorting out the accusations and counter-accusations of  three young women whose friendship hides deep-seated rivalries. And lastly, a seaside hotel is losing business due to an alleged werewolf haunting the grounds.

Click HERE to read the review from Publishers Weekly.

Click HERE to read the review from Kirkus Reviews.

Click HERE to read the review from Criminal Element.com.

Click HERE to read the review fro the New York Journal of Books.

The Colors of All the Cattle by Alexander McCall Smith

The Colors of All the Cattle by Alexander McCall Smith
(No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #19)
240 pages

"When Mma Potokwane suggests to Mma Ramotswe that she run for a seat on the City Council, Mma Ramotswe is at first unsure. But when she learns about the proposed construction of the flashy Big Fun Hotel next to a graveyard, she allows herself to be persuaded. Her opponent is none other than Violet Sephotho...

"Meanwhile, Mma Ramotswe has acquired a new client: one of her late father's old friends, who was the victim of a hit-and-run accident. Charlie volunteers to be the lead investigator in the case to prove he's ready to be more than an apprentice, as well as to impress a new girlfriend."        --from the publisher

This is another lovely installment in the series. Alexander McCall Smith continues to develop and grow the endearing characters. I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with them in their home country of Botswana.

The Colors of All the Cattle by Alexander McCall Smith

The Colors of All the Cattle: The New No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Novel by Alexander McCall Smith --- 228 pages

Heading back to Botswana with Mma Ramotswe and her friends is always a  pleasant change from the stress and upset of modern life. In this latest book, number 19  in a series spanning 20 years, Precious Ramotswe, owner of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, is inveigled into running for a seat on the Gaberone City Council by her good friend Mma Potokwane, the Matron of the local Orphan Farm: Mma Potokwane is not a woman who takes no for an answer, and Mma Ramotswe agrees that someone should stop conniving property developer Gobe Maruti from building the Big Fun Hotel right next to the local cemetery and disturbing the resting place of the late. 

Mma Potokwani is convinced that Mma Ramotswe, with all her detective experience, will be able to stop the developer in his tracks. But Mma Ramotswe is not so sure that she is cut out for a political career, which involves public speaking, and argument, and being constantly in the public eye, but as her friends rally around her she decides to leave it all in God's hands. Her campaign slogan is simple: "I can't promise anything but I shall do my best." And as always, she does.

Another heartfelt and lyrical adventure from master storyteller McCall Smith.

Click HERE to read the * review from Publishers Weekly.

Click HERE to read the review from Kirkus Reviews.

Click HERE to read the review from the New York Journal of Books.

The Quiet Side of Passion by Alexander McCall Smith

The Quiet Side of Passion: An Isabel Dalhousie Novel by Alexander McCall Smith --- 287 pages

One of the most delightful things about author Alexander McCall Smith is his ability to write wryly and affectionately about the ethical dilemmas of ordinary daily life. For the most part his characters are so likable that even their foibles disarm us, while the occasional villain suffers a satisfactory comeuppance.

In the 12th book in his Sunday Philosophy Club series, it is glorious summer in Edinburgh and Isabel has more on her plate than she can handle. As her husband Jamie gently reminds her, Isabel's tendency to get involved in other peoples' problems causes complications in her own life.

There's Patricia, the mother of their son Charlie's nursery school friend Basil, quick to take advantage of free babysitting. But is she also scamming the man she alleges is Basil's father for child support?    Isabel's devoted housekeeper is spending most of her time minding Charlie and his younger brother Magnus, and the house desperately needs a top to bottom cleaning. Isabel's niece, Cat, has taken up with a tattoo artist, and has a bad habit of expecting Isabel to drop everything at a moment's notice to help out at Cat's shop. And Isabel has much to do preparing the next issue of the Review of Applied Ethics.

Jamie persuades Isabel that she needs to hire more help for herself: an au pair to help with the boys and the housework, and a part-time assistant to help with the Review. Unfortunately, Antonia, the exuberant Italian au pair, works hard during the day but parties even harder at night. And Claire, the graduate student hired as Isabel's assistant for the Review, brings with her the unwelcome interference of Isabel's old antagonist, Professor Lettuce. Has Isabel's desire for an efficient and orderly home and and career backfired into even more chaos instead?

Click HERE to read the review from the Christian Science Monitor

A Time of Love and Tartan by Alexander McCall Smith

A Time of Love and Tartan: The New 44 Scotland Street Novel by Alexander McCall Smith --- 247 pages

Number 12 in the 44 Scotland Street Series by the inimitable McCall Smith does not disappoint, although the mood in this latest installment becomes rather dour at times, as if even McCall Smith's invincible optimism has met its limits.

His usual cast of characters seem uneasily aware that even Edinburgh is not immune to change; life is uncertain, love can be fleeting, and the brave new world lurks like a wolf waiting to devour the unwitting. McCall Smith looks into that abyss and what we see is not pretty.

Yet in the end kindness and decency reassert themselves. The book ends with the promise of brighter and kinder days ahead even for young Bertie Pollack and his father. Readers will rejoice.

Click HERE for a review from Publishers Weekly.

Click HERE for a review from Kirkus Reviews.

Click HERE for a review from Birlinn (UK).

Click HERE for a review from the Washington Times.

The House of Unexpected Sisters by Alexander McCall Smith

The House of Unexpected Sisters by Alexander McCall Smith
(The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #18)
240 pages

"Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi are approached by their part-time colleague, Mr. Polopetsi, with a troubling story: a woman, accused of being rude to a valued customer, has been wrongly dismissed from her job at an office furniture store.  Never one to let an act of injustice go unanswered, Mma Ramotswe begins to investigate, but soon discovers unexpected information that causes her to reluctantly change her views about the case...

"With the generosity and good humor that guide all her endeavors, Mma Ramotswe will untangle these questions for herself and for her loved ones, ultimately bringing to light important truths about friendship and family--both the one you're born with and the one you choose."  (from the publisher)

These books are delightful and refreshing for me.  McCall Smith lives up to his series standard with his latest installment.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Now how long until the next one is published...

The House of Unexpected Sisters by Alexander McCall Smith

The House of Unexpected Sisters: The New No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Novel by Alexander McCall Smith --- 227 pages

The 18th book in this much-loved, long-running series is one of McCall Smith's best efforts. Botswana’s first female private detective, Precious Ramotswe and her co-director Grace Makutsi – who's upped her title again, to Principal Investigating Officer – agree to take on the case of Charity Mompoloki, a young widow with two children to support, who has been fired from her job at an office furniture company in Gaborone, because an important client said she was rude to him. Charity steadfastly maintains her innocence of the charge; and since up until then she had been a top performing saleswoman, Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi are looking to see what other motive the store owner, Rra Gopolang, might have had to dismiss Charity.


Mma Ramotswe is distracted from the case however, when she sees a photograph in the Botswana Daily News of a nurse named Mingie Ramotswe working in Lobotse. Mma Ramotswe is immediately intrigued: her surname is unusual; she was an only child and besides her and her daddy, there were only a few cousins. She wonders who this Mingie could be.  But when she finds out, it turns everything she believed about her family completely upside down. 

Then her friend Mma Potokwane warns Mma Ramotswe that her abusive ex-husband, Note Mokoti, has come back to Gaborone, creating more anxieties for Mma Ramotswe (the last time Note returned to Gabarone he tried to extort money from Mma Ramotswe).

How McCall Smith finally resolves all the disparate threads of this story is both clever and emotionally satisfying.  His traditional coda at the conclusion of the story reminds us just how powerful is the bond that connects a person with a beloved place.

Click HERE to read the review from Publisher's Weekly.

Click HERE to read the review from Kirkus Reviews.

A Distant View of Everything by Alexander McCall Smith

A Distant View of Everything: An Isabel Dalhousie Novel by Alexander McCall Smith --- 240 pages

The eleventh novel in this gentle series. Isabel and Jamie have a new baby, Magnus. They are amused and mildly dismayed by the distinct lack of enthusiasm displayed by four-year-old brother Charlie. “Don’t need a baby,” Charlie says, and suggests several ways to dispose of the interloper.

Nonetheless, Isabel can still find time to edit her "Review of Applied Ethics," fill in at her niece Cat's delicatessen,  and help out an old friend who fears her matchmaking efforts may have backfired this time. Nothing much ever really happens in this series. The minimal plot is there to provide opportunities for Isabel to engage in conversations and ponder ethical dilemmas. After all, Isabel is a philosopher, so what could be more natural? She at least acknowledges that hers is a privileged existence. In one episode in this book, she actually comes up against (briefly) the unprivileged reality of ordinary life and finds herself out of her depth. Sadly but predictably, she retreats. I'm not sure what Isabel would do if she faced a serious, imminent moral dilemma with no easy resolution.

 This is not a real mystery novel, with a crime, and lots of false clues and misleading actions that need to be sorted out. But if you want to escape to a pocket utopia where you too can while away a few hours in the best of all possible worlds, Isabel will be happy to oblige.

Click HERE to read the review from Kirkus Reviews.

Click HERE to read the review from nudge-book.com blog.

My Italian Bulldozer by Alexander McCall Smith

My Italian Bulldozer: A Novel by Alexander McCall Smith --- 232 pages

Writer Paul Stewart heads to the small Italian town of Montalcino to finish his book on the food and wine of Tuscany, and to nurse a broken heart. His four-year relationship with Becky has just ended with Becky dumping him for her personal trainer. One senses that Paul's pride is hurt as well as his heart. Italy seems like the perfect refuge for an over-stressed food writer, but Paul's Italian adventure begins with a traveler's disaster of major proportions. Fortunately he is rescued by an acquaintance he made on the plane. But with no reservation and no other cars available on a holiday weekend, it looks like Paul may spend his vacation at the airport until an enterprising businessman offers him a different kind of transport: a bulldozer. 

 

Lacking alternatives, Paul accepts. He discovers that driving a bulldozer gives him an entirely new and unexpected perspective, not just on the Italian countryside, but on life in general and love in particular. As usual, McCall Smith's gentle drollery masks some shrewd observations on human relationships. A lesson in the value of friendship, making the best of what life brings, and finding love when you least expect it.  

Click HERE to read a review from The Scotsman.

Click HERE to read a review from Kirkus Reviews.

Click HERE to read a review from the New York Journal of Books.

 

Precious and Grace by Alexander McCall Smith

Precious and Grace: The New No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency Novel by Alexander McCall Smith --- 227 pages

Very few authors write about compassion and forgiveness as convincingly as Alexander McCall Smith. He has created a world that is less than perfect and a heroine who  can acknowledge those imperfections and still face life and its problems without cynicism or despair.

Whether she is dealing with a woman seeking to exorcise the ghost that mars her memories of childhood in Botswana, or extricating a naive associate from a questionable business deal, or finding a forever home for a stray dog, or gently encouraging Mma Makutsi to bury her feud with the notorious Violet Sephotho, Precious Ramotswe understands forgiveness is the only road that frees us from the dead weight of the past. The seventeenth book in the series is another gentle delight.

Click HERE to read the review from Publishers Weekly.

Click HERE to read the review from Kirkus.

Click HERE to read the review from the Washington Times.

Click HERE to read the review from the Mystery People blog.

The Revolving Door of Life by Alexander McCall Smith

The Revolving Door of Life: The New 44 Scotland Street Novel by Alexander McCall Smith --- 282 pages

The tenth installment in McCall Smith's 44 Scotland Street Series is charming, droll, and poignant all at once, maintaining the high standard of story-telling and gentle satire we've come to expect from McCall Smith.

In this episode, the much put-upon Bertie Pollack, his hapless father Stuart and his small brother Ulysses have temporarily escaped from the tyranny of Irene (one of the most fearsome mothers in fiction).  Irene is causing havoc in a Bedouin harem (see Bertie's Guide to Life and Mothers), and Stuart has asked his mother to help out with the boys.  Nicola, arriving from Portugal, transforms Bertie's life and his fervent wish is for his grandmother to "please stay forever."

Meanwhile Matthew and Elspeth and their triplets have moved to a big house in the country, formerly owned by the doubtfully titled Duke of Johannesburg. When Matthew discovers a secret room and long forgotten treasure, he faces an ethical dilemma: who is the owner and beneficiary of this treasure?  Meanwhile, Matthew's assistant at the art gallery, Pat, is facing a dilemma of her own.  She is convinced her widower and well-to-do father is being taken in by a con artist who is after his money. She reluctantly enlists the help of her former boy friend, the narcissistic Bruce, to expose the schemer.  But Bruce seems to have met his match --- a woman even more ruthlessly opportunistic than he is! And there are dark schemes going on within the Association of Scottish Nudists' headquarters in nearby Moray Place.

Click HERE to read a review from Kirkus Reviews.

Click HERE to read a review from the Cultural Voyager.

The Woman Who Walked in Sunshine by Alexander McCall Smith

The Woman Who Walked in Sunshine: The New No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Novel by Alexander McCall Smith --- 213 pages

this is the 16th book in the prolific McCall Smith's best known and well-loved series of cozy detective stories featuring Mma Precious Ramostswe of Botswana.

As her dedicated fans all know, Mma Ramotswe is not one to sit back and take it easy. Her life is busy and filled with responsibilities, and she is a conscientious wife, mother, friend and business woman. So it is with some misgivings that she  allows herself to be persuaded to take a week's holiday, leaving her partner Mma Makutsi in sole charge of the No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency.

But on the very first day of her holiday, Mma Ramotswe encounters a delinquent-in-the-making, a small boy named Samuel set adrift on the streets of Gabarone and decides to intervene.

Then she discovers that in her absence Mma Makutsi has undertaken a very delicate case of a recently deceased politician with a large and loyal following whose reputation has been posthumously called into question. Convinced that Mma Makutsi is in over her head, Mma Ramotswe launces her own investigation. When Mma Makutsi finds out it puts a serious strain on both their partnership and their friendship.

Then Mma Ramotswe learns that Mma Makutsi's arch rival, the scheming Violet Sephotho, has opened a secretarial school in competition with Mma Makutsi's beloved alma mater, the Botswana Secretarial College. Both Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi know that Violet Sephotho has zero interest in education so this so-called college is a scam of some kind that must be quickly nipped in the bud.

Click HERE to see the review in The Scotsman.

Click HERE to reaad the review from Publishers Weekly.

The Novel Habits of Happiness by Alexander McCall Smith

The Novel Habits of Happiness: An Isabel Dalhousie Novel by Alexander McCall Smith --- 257 pages

This is the tenth novel in the Sunday Philosophy Club Series, that has all the charming appeal of leisurely afternoon chats with a very old friend.

Isabel Dalhousie asks herself whether she has a tendancy to be severe in her judgments of others. In particular, she’s having qualms about her negative reaction to a pair of rival philosophers who are intruding on her patch with their scheme to take control of Edinburgh's Philosophical Institute. Then there's her ambivalent relationship with her niece, Cat, who has embarked upon yet another unsuitable romance with a dishwasher repairman.

Isabel simply can’t help getting involved in other people’s problems. Isabel’s husband Jamie has his qualms about this, but he knows that this tendancy is also what he finds so attractive in her.

This time around Isabel has been asked to help the mother of a young boy who believes he had a previous life with another family and expresses a wish to return to them. Isabel finds this unbelievable but, not wishing to further upset the boy's mother, agrees to investigate whether there is any factual basis to the boy's descriptions of the other family and home.

As the reviewer in Kirkus observes,  The Novel Habits of Happiness is "the wooliest of Isabel's ten appearances to date and the one that makes the most decided case for the mental digression as a structural principle" in the writing of fiction. In short, readers either love Isabel or hate her.  There seems to be no middle ground.  Having read and enjoyed all ten books in the series so far, I qualify as an Isabel-lover.

Click HERE to read the Kirkus review in full.

Click HERE to read the New York Journal of Books review by an Isabel lover.

Click HERE to read the Washington Times review by an Isabel hater.