Product Description

Introducing Isabel Dalhousie the heroine of the latest bestselling series from the author of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. Isabel, the editor of the Review of Applied Ethics and an occasional detective, has been accused of getting involved in problems that are, quite frankly, none of her business.

In this first installment, Isabel is attending a concert in the Usher Hall when she witnesses a man fall from the upper balcony. Isabel can’t help wondering whether it was the result of mischance or mischief. Against the best advice of her no-nonsense housekeeper Grace, her bassoon playing friend Jamie, and even her romantically challenged neice Cat, she is morally bound to solve this case. Complete with wonderful Edinburgh atmosphere and characters straight out of a Robert Burns poem, The Sunday Philosophy Club is a delightful treat from one of our most beloved authors.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10147 in Books
• Published on: 2005-07-12
• Released on: 2005-07-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Murder and moral obligation mingle in this whimsical new series from the author of the smash hit The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. McCall Smith's new heroine is Scottish-American philosopher Isabel Dalhousie, a single woman of independent means who edits the esteemed Review of Applied Ethics and presides over the titular club. When Isabel witnesses fund manager Mark Fraser fall from a balcony after a performance at an Edinburgh concert hall, she feels obliged to investigate the gentleman's demise. "I was the last person that young man saw," Dalhousie tells her beloved niece, Cat. "The last person. And don't you think that the last person you see on this earth owes you something?" Given her affinity for applied ethics, questions of conscience are a daily concern for Isabel, and the more she thinks about Fraser's fall, the less accidental it seems. Among those who might have pushed him: his shifty roommate, his colleague's scheming spouse and a disgruntled broker with a craving for cash. Fans of Botswanan heroine Precious Ramotswe are sure to embrace Scotsman McCall Smith's plucky new protagonist, who leads a cast of delightfully quirky characters that includes Toby, a dapper bachelor with a dubious understanding of fidelity, and Grace, Dalhousie's morally upright housekeeper, who sizes up society's reprobates in two syllables or less. Scotland's climate may be misty and cool, but McCall Smith's charming prose warms every page of this winning series debut.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Bookmarks Magazine
The Dalhousie series is “sure to be a second hit franchise,” notes The New York Times. That may be, but it’s currently suffering inevitable comparisons with the popular No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. Sunday Club rambles along just as slowly and develops its sense of time and place just as whimsically. Still, something—maybe the charm?—is missing. This time, McCall Smith, a professor of medical law, examines both a mysterious death and moral responsibility. Isabel’s ethical musings may bore some of us shallow folk, though McCall Smith’s psychological insight fascinates. And, while critics liked Isabel, they didn’t heap on the effusive praise they’ve reserved for the charming Precious (see The Full Cupboard of Life, **** July/Aug 2004). So, sit back, take a deep breath, and wait for the second installment … what’s the rush?

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

From Booklist
*Starred Review* Following the success of his No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, the Zimbabwe-born Scot goes for the kilt in a new detective series starring moral philosopher Isabel Dalhousie, an unmarried woman of independent means. (The book's title refers to a group of heady thinkers presided over by plucky Scottish American Isabel.) After witnessing fund manager Mark Fraser plummet from the balcony during a performance at the Edinburgh Concert Hall, Isabel, who edits the esteemed Review of Applied Ethics, feels a moral obligation to investigate the young man's demise. Pondering the possibilities with Jaime, her niece's drop-dead-handsome former suitor, Isabel doubts Fraser's fall was an accident at all. Fans of Botswanese heroine Precious Ramotswe are sure to embrace McCall Smith's irrepressible new protagonist, who leads a cast of delightfully flawed characters. Among them: a frosty banker named Minty, a dapper bachelor with a dubious definition of fidelity, and a morally upright housekeeper who sizes up society's reprobates in two syllables or less. Scotland's climate may be misty and cool, but the author's gentle humor and keen insights into human nature warm every page of this engaging series debut. Among the novel's whimsical moments is a performance by the Really Terrible Orchestra, a real-life ensemble in which McCall Smith plays the bassoon--badly. Allison Block
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Tedious, TMI about the mundane inner workings of the heroine's fossilized mind
Supposedly the star of this show is a well educated women in her 40's. Unfortunatly, her inner musings are mundane, repetative and seem more typical of someone in her 80's who has lived a dull, rule-dominated life. Further, she lacks common sense in human relations. She leaks her anxiety in damaging ways onto others and the author tries to convince readers that this reflects some comprehensible moral code about truth telling. The transcription of this dreary woman's inner musings is boring in the extreme, even for someone like me, who enjoys ethical discussions. It seems that the author took an intro course in ethical/moral reasoning and feels qualified to wax eloquent about tempests in teapots. What I don't understand is why a publisher wouldn't have the good sense or courage to tell this previoulsy successful author that she is out to lunch with this dreary tome. I'll probably never know who killed that young man because I can't bear to proceed further into the book, but here's my guess - Neil did it to get rid of a romatic rival. The insider trading tip was a lie to send our heroine down the wrong path.

Dull story; unBEARable heroine
This story was a very slow mover. In spite of the fact that the main character, Isabel, believes that a young man has been pushed over a balcony, nothing goes along at a pace that suggests that there might be a crime that wants solving.

In my opinion, Smith's writing was awful. The main fault is in Isabel, who is undoubtedly one of the most smug and pretentious heroines in modern literature. She's a truly annoying character, but what's bad is that she -- a philosopher, mind you -- has no self-awareness of what a twit she is. At one point, she reflects (with lots of mental back-patting) that she is a person who "believes in privacy," all while she's being a pushy and obnoxious nosey parker, intruding on people's grief and their personal lives in the name of "moral responsibility" to the man whose death she witnessed. I know. I didn't think it made any sense, either.

She simply could not have been more irritating. Plus, the ending fell flat -- it was a truly uninspired way to finish off the story.

The greatest recommendation I can give is that this book is not long at all. If you insist on reading it, it won't take long for you to finish it. You can return it to your public library before it is overdue. Because....you aren't going to BUY it, are you?

A solid start
This book is very weak as a mystery, but as you'll see if you follow the series, the mystery is not the point. While the first two books are billed as "Isabel Dalhousie mysteries," the last two are labelled as "Isabel Dalhousie novels," which is more accurate. Alexander McCall Smith does an excellent job of creating a world that you'll want to revisit over and over. Isabel Dalhousie doesn't come off very well in this book, making snap judgments and jumping to erroneous conclusions, but over the course of the series I've come to consider her quite sympathetic and entertaining. I like this book in itself for the interesting details about Edinburgh; with subsequent books, the series only gets better.