Synopses & Reviews
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.
Review
"An elegant mystery filled not with dead bodies but an air of gentle refinement, intelligence and insight....Isabel is a true original." Orlando Sentinel
Review
"A quiet mystery aimed in equal parts at the head and the heart." The Patriot News (Harrisburg, PA)
Review
"Genial....Wise....Glows like a rare jewel." Entertainment Weekly
Review
"Devotees of Smith's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series are certain to enjoy these new people and this new place....To know Isabel Dalhousie is to like and admire her." Chicago Tribune
About the Author
Alexander McCall Smith is the author of the international phenomenon The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. He was born in what is now known as Zimbabwe and was a law professor at the University of Botswana. He lives in Scotland, where he is a professor of medical law at Edinburgh University. In his spare time he is a bassoonist in the RTO (Really Terrible Orchestra).