The Careful Use of Compliments, Alexander McCall Smith

William Crozier, Edinburgh (from Salisbury Crags)

(February 14) We learn even more about modern Scottish painters in this Isabel Dalhousie and also travel out into the rural parts of Scotland and the isles a great deal (in contrast to my image choice above). This time the nominal "mystery" is a potential art forgery, and once again McCall Smith provides an interesting and unexpected solution. However, he didn’t surprise me with the final twist in the Isabel-Jamie-Cat love triangle.

Or is he just leading me on?

Friends, Lovers, Chocolate, Alexander McCall Smith

William Allan, The Murder of David Rizzio

(February 9) This one has the most shamelessly chick-lit title in what is definitely a series for women readers, and there is some very feminine swooning over chocolate and men in it, so it is a bit soap-opera-y. But Friends, Lovers, Chocolate does redeem itself by once again featuring this highly original definition of mystery McCall Smith has played with in the series, and it does so by way of some really interesting questions, namely, can a heart recipient see the donor's murderer (if indeed the donor was murdered) and what is the importance of being able to give thanks for an important gift?

As in The Right Attitude to Rain and The Sunday Philosophy Club, we learn a great deal about the City of Edinburgh (particularly in June) and about 20th-century Scottish artists, and in this one we go into a bit of Scottish history as well. The famous story of Mary Queen of Scots being unable to prevent the death of Rizzio right in front of her eyes is a counterpart both to the fate of the heart donor and to Isabel's indecision about taking on a Latin lover. Quirky.

The Sunday Philosophy Club, Alexander McCall Smith

William Crosbie, Dum Vivimus Vivamus

(February 4) So, just as rain is a topic mentioned only once, very casually, in The Right Attitude to Rain, a Sunday philosophy club is just a throwaway reference in The Sunday Philosophy Club. I’m starting to get the charm of these books.

There is at least a mysterious death in this installment, which explains how the series must have won its berth in the "mystery" category. However, Isabel doesn't "solve" the puzzle for the usual reasons sleuths solve mysteries -- and she doesn't do anything with the solution once she has it --; it's a very anti-mystery mystery. Her response to the death is an ethical question for Isabel, first and foremost, and for the bulk of the book she dithers away over other small, domestic, ethical issues, just as in The Right Attitude to Rain.

There is so little action! People are met, beverages are drunk, food is eaten, routines are gone through. Still, there's something really pleasant about the tone and pace of these books. Also, both Sunday Philosophy Club and Right Attitude to Rain have ended with a completely surprising twist, for which McCall Smith deserves a lot of credit.

The Right Attitude to Rain, Alexander McCall Smith

David Gauld, Music

(February 2) Aunt Lois gave me this since she had an extra copy and we’d been talking about Alexander McCall Smith on Christmas Day. I was glad to get it because I loved the first five books of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, and I’d heard various people (including Aunt Lois) say they liked the Isabel Dalhousie series as much, if not more, than they liked the Botswana books.

But, at first blush, this book baffled me. I expected it to be different from the Botswana books, but I wasn’t prepared for it being different in the way it was. The narrative voice is all brisk and conventional, instead of tender and cheeky as it is in the Botswana books; the main character, Isabel, is not presented with the same kind of cozy familiarity as Precious is; and, moreover, Isabel is, basically, borderline neurotic, constantly and exhaustively analyzing everything that happens and every little choice she has to make in terms of their ethical ramifications. It’s the very definition of Zen mindfulness. In fact, an hour reading this book is more like an hour spent doing mindful meditation than anything else.

On top of this, nothing really happens, and Isabel is not really a sleuth; she’s a bit curious about people and their motivations, but that’s it. There’s very little discussion of rain, even. It seemed flat and formal, like the David Gauld painting above, at first, and I didn’t think I’d end up pursuing the series.

But by the end of the book, the pleasant tone and pace had won me over a bit. I was wondering if I had been wrong to read the third of a four-book series first, and willing to give another title in the series a go.

Well, four books later, I can say that it was definitely a mistake to read The Right Attitude to Rain first. Now I know that A GREAT DEAL happens in The Right Attitude to Rain and that I spoiled my potentially much greater enjoyment of it by reading it out of order. Also, I now appreciate Isabel’s philosophical conundrums as “the mysteries” she solves, and have to concede that her thorough working out of her ethical duties is a quite acceptable kind of sleuthiness.