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quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
Behind Edinburgh’s regimented Georgian facades, its moral compasses are spinning with greed, dishonesty, lust and murderous intent. Isabel Dalhousie knows this. Isabel, in fact, rather relishes it. An accomplished philosopher and editor of the Review of Applied Ethics, she knows all about the difference between good and bad. Which is probably why, by instinct, she is an amateur sleuth. And instinct tells her the man who tumbled to his death in front of her eyes after a concert in the Usher Hall didn’t fall. He was pushed …
Alexander McCall Smith is not a writer whose work I have previously read (although I have heard of his very successful novel The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency). The Sunday Philosophy Club is the beginning of a new series featuring the middle-aged and single Isabel Dalhousie.
I’m going to confess right from the start that I did not take to Isabel as a character. In part, this is because I found that she rather stretched belief. She’s an independently wealthy, middle-aged woman (who married the love of her life, only to be left by him) who has retained her looks but who isn’t pursuing a relationship and who also happens to be a philosopher. I don’t doubt that there are women like this in real life, but it is an awful lot to take in in what’s actually quite a short book (coming in at just under 300 pages) and I did think that McCall Smith leveraged in the backstory with her lover John Liamor a little too obviously. Given that this is to be a series (and in fact the sequel Friends, Lovers, Chocolate is already available), I think that some of the backstory could have been alluded to so as to give the reader the idea that there’s more to come before being drawn out in later novels. As it is, I’m not sure that there’s enough left to discover about Isabel that would keep me reading.
It’s a shame that I didn’t take to Isabel given that the book is really about her and her thoughts on modern day society. In fact, I thought that the Blurb on the Back was a little misleading because whilst the novel does begin with a death (which I thought was conveyed in a really believable manner, complete with a lovely touch about how the victim’s shirt has risen up as he falls to expose his midrift), Isabel’s investigations are really almost an afterthought - a thin skeleton on which to hang the characterisation.
McCall Smith focuses the bulk of the book’s attention on Isabel’s relationship with Jamie (a young man who previously went out with her niece and who she has hopes will become a nephew-in-law) and with Cat, her niece who is currently dating an unsuitable man called Toby. Again, neither Jamie or Cat convinced me as characters as both are essentially sounding boards for different aspects of Isabel’s personality: Jamie represents a sounding board for her ideas on what is desirable in a man (given that she admits to having an attraction to him) and Cat a sounding board for the importance on settling down with the right man. Toby barely gets a look in beyond the dismissed suitor and in fact, the way that McCall Smith dispatches him via the highly contrived discovery of infidelity was a little disappointing. In addition, whilst I could understand the basis of Cat’s relationship with Isabel, I couldn’t quite buy into why Jamie would want to spend so much time with her - the attraction aspect on his part is not wholly convincing and by offering a rationale his wish to stay close in some way to Cat (given that he hopes for a second chance) makes him seem a little pathetic and weak.
I did however enjoy the relationship (platonic) between Isabel and her housekeeper Grace. Grace with her superstitions and ability to nail a character felt very real to me and whilst she’s relegated to a role of reinforcing Isabel’s confidence and listening to those problems she can’t share with Jamie or Cat there’s a lot of scope for development there.
I do want to say that whilst I found this book disappointing (given the respect with which McCall Smith is held in by reviewers), it is nevertheless a pleasant read and I found the segments looking at issues of moral philosophy to be interesting and easily understandable (albeit it again, sometimes leveraged into the story) and it’s good to see a writer who is not afraid to run concepts and ideas by his readers just to make them think about what they would do or how they feel about something. There is at the same time though, a curiously old-fashioned feel to this book - more one for Agatha Christie fans I think than for fans of modern thriller writers (which are more urgently plot driven affairs). Oh - and you won't see any meetings of the titular Club - it's more a teasing device to pique your interest.
The Verdict:
A gentle read that I feel could have benefited from a more realistic protagonist. To continue reading the series, I’d need to see more involving plots and on this offering, I’m not sure that McCall Smith is interested in going down that route (which is fair enough). Perfect for a rainy Sunday afternoon but it’s old fashioned values will not necessarily appeal to a younger audience.
Behind Edinburgh’s regimented Georgian facades, its moral compasses are spinning with greed, dishonesty, lust and murderous intent. Isabel Dalhousie knows this. Isabel, in fact, rather relishes it. An accomplished philosopher and editor of the Review of Applied Ethics, she knows all about the difference between good and bad. Which is probably why, by instinct, she is an amateur sleuth. And instinct tells her the man who tumbled to his death in front of her eyes after a concert in the Usher Hall didn’t fall. He was pushed …
Alexander McCall Smith is not a writer whose work I have previously read (although I have heard of his very successful novel The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency). The Sunday Philosophy Club is the beginning of a new series featuring the middle-aged and single Isabel Dalhousie.
I’m going to confess right from the start that I did not take to Isabel as a character. In part, this is because I found that she rather stretched belief. She’s an independently wealthy, middle-aged woman (who married the love of her life, only to be left by him) who has retained her looks but who isn’t pursuing a relationship and who also happens to be a philosopher. I don’t doubt that there are women like this in real life, but it is an awful lot to take in in what’s actually quite a short book (coming in at just under 300 pages) and I did think that McCall Smith leveraged in the backstory with her lover John Liamor a little too obviously. Given that this is to be a series (and in fact the sequel Friends, Lovers, Chocolate is already available), I think that some of the backstory could have been alluded to so as to give the reader the idea that there’s more to come before being drawn out in later novels. As it is, I’m not sure that there’s enough left to discover about Isabel that would keep me reading.
It’s a shame that I didn’t take to Isabel given that the book is really about her and her thoughts on modern day society. In fact, I thought that the Blurb on the Back was a little misleading because whilst the novel does begin with a death (which I thought was conveyed in a really believable manner, complete with a lovely touch about how the victim’s shirt has risen up as he falls to expose his midrift), Isabel’s investigations are really almost an afterthought - a thin skeleton on which to hang the characterisation.
McCall Smith focuses the bulk of the book’s attention on Isabel’s relationship with Jamie (a young man who previously went out with her niece and who she has hopes will become a nephew-in-law) and with Cat, her niece who is currently dating an unsuitable man called Toby. Again, neither Jamie or Cat convinced me as characters as both are essentially sounding boards for different aspects of Isabel’s personality: Jamie represents a sounding board for her ideas on what is desirable in a man (given that she admits to having an attraction to him) and Cat a sounding board for the importance on settling down with the right man. Toby barely gets a look in beyond the dismissed suitor and in fact, the way that McCall Smith dispatches him via the highly contrived discovery of infidelity was a little disappointing. In addition, whilst I could understand the basis of Cat’s relationship with Isabel, I couldn’t quite buy into why Jamie would want to spend so much time with her - the attraction aspect on his part is not wholly convincing and by offering a rationale his wish to stay close in some way to Cat (given that he hopes for a second chance) makes him seem a little pathetic and weak.
I did however enjoy the relationship (platonic) between Isabel and her housekeeper Grace. Grace with her superstitions and ability to nail a character felt very real to me and whilst she’s relegated to a role of reinforcing Isabel’s confidence and listening to those problems she can’t share with Jamie or Cat there’s a lot of scope for development there.
I do want to say that whilst I found this book disappointing (given the respect with which McCall Smith is held in by reviewers), it is nevertheless a pleasant read and I found the segments looking at issues of moral philosophy to be interesting and easily understandable (albeit it again, sometimes leveraged into the story) and it’s good to see a writer who is not afraid to run concepts and ideas by his readers just to make them think about what they would do or how they feel about something. There is at the same time though, a curiously old-fashioned feel to this book - more one for Agatha Christie fans I think than for fans of modern thriller writers (which are more urgently plot driven affairs). Oh - and you won't see any meetings of the titular Club - it's more a teasing device to pique your interest.
The Verdict:
A gentle read that I feel could have benefited from a more realistic protagonist. To continue reading the series, I’d need to see more involving plots and on this offering, I’m not sure that McCall Smith is interested in going down that route (which is fair enough). Perfect for a rainy Sunday afternoon but it’s old fashioned values will not necessarily appeal to a younger audience.
