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 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.

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.

The Uncommon Appeal of Clouds by Alexander McCall Smith

The Uncommon Appeal of Clouds: An Isabel Dalhousie Novel by Alexander McCall Smith --- 259 pages

Ninth in the series about the quirky adventures of the Edinburgh philosopher and amateur sleuth. This time Isabel is asked to provide assistance to Duncan Munrowe, who has lost a valuable painting by the French artist Nicholas Poussin, stolen by thieves in the night. Munrowe is particularly upset because he has promised to donate the painting to the Scottish National Gallery. He feels not just a personal, but a public obligation, to get the painting back.

The thieves have contacted Munrowe and offered to return the painting in exchange for a substantial "reward" --- in so many words, Munrowe has been offered a chance to ransom his painting. Isabel discovers certain circumstances that lead her to suspect that the thieves in this case could be far closer to home than Munrowe realizes, and that creates another dilemma for Isabel: how much of her suspicions should she share with Munrowe?

While all this is going on, Isabel is also coping with other events, small and large, in the life of her family and friends. There's Eddie, the young man who works for her niece Cat in Cat's delicatessen. He's worried about health issues, and he's in love with a girl who seems to like him a lot but, unfortunately, her parents disapprove of Eddie, and have the financial leverage to enforce their disapproval. There's deadlines to meet and decisions to be made about articles for the next issue of Isabel's journal, the Review of Applied Ethics.

And then there's the small domestic storm created when Isabel and Jamie discover their housekeeper Grace has been tutoring their young son Charlie in mathematics. Grace is convinced that three-year-old Charlie is on his way to becoming a child prodigy (with her assistance and coaching), while Isabel and Jamie prefer for Charlie to have a normal, happy childhood and to allow his talents to unfold naturally.

Once again McCall Smith illustrates that many of life's problems can be solved with patience, kindness, consideration for others, and good principles gently applied.