The Sunday Philosophy Club

Those who ony know Alexander McCall Smith for the Botswanan Ladies Detective Agency should try his Edinburgh novels featuring Isobel Dalhousie. They have a gentle pace about them that keeps the story moving along, yet still finds time to digress into abstruse ethical points and take the reader on a tour of Scottish modern painting and a Scotch whisky tasting. It is a whodunnit of sorts, with the usuall red herrings and surprise ending, but it is such fun! I suppose it might be counted as criticism to say that he writes like a woman, but he does just that. He is more concerned with character than plot and the characters he constructs are real people, some of whom I'm sure I've met. Bravo!