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The Comforts of a Muddy Saturday: An Isabel Dalhousie Novel Hardcover – September 23, 2008
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Nothing captures the charm of Edinburgh like the bestselling Isabel Dalhousie series of novels featuring the insatiably curious philosopher and woman detective. Whether investigating a case or a problem of philosophy, the indefatigable Isabel Dalhousie, one of fiction’s most richly developed amateur detectives, is always ready to pursue the answers to all of life’s questions, large and small.
In the fabulous new installment in the best-selling adventures of Isabel Dalhousie, Isabel is asked to help a doctor who has been disgraced by allegations of scientific fraud concerning a newly marketed drug. Our ever-curious moral philosopher finds her interest piqued. Would a doctor with a stellar reputation make such a simple but grave mistake? If not, what explains the tragic accident that resulted in the death of a patient? Clearly, an investigation is in order, especially since a man's reputation is in jeopardy. Could he be the victim of someone else's mistake? Or perhaps he has been willfully deceived by a pharmaceutical company with a great deal to gain.
Not every problem prompts an investigation (take, for example, her ongoing struggle with her housekeeper, Grace, over the care of Isabel's infant son, Charlie), but, as we've seen, whatever the case, whatever the solution, Isabel's combination of spirit, smarts, empathy, and unabashed nosiness guarantees a delightful adventure.
- Print length256 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherPantheon
- Publication dateSeptember 23, 2008
- Dimensions5.71 x 0.96 x 8.53 inches
- ISBN-100375425136
- ISBN-13978-0375425134
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
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From Booklist
Review
--The New York Times Book Review
"Delightful... McCall Smith's talent for dialogue is matched only by his gift for characterization."
--Chicago Tribune
"Full of his insightful but gentle examinations of human nature... Paints [a] rich portrait of Edinburgh."
--Rocky Mountain News
"Alexander McCall Smith's writing is downright addictive."
--The Grand Rapids Press
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
It happened when she was walking with Jamie across the Meadows, the large, tree-lined park that divides South Edinburgh from the Old Town. Jamie was her . . . What was he? Her lover—her younger lover—her boyfriend; the father of her child. She was reluctant to use the word partner because it has associations of impermanence and business arrangements. Jamie was most definitely not a business arrangement; he was her north, her south, to quote Auden, whom she had recently decided she would quote less frequently. But even in the making of that resolution, she had found a line from Auden that seemed to express it all, and had given up on that ambition. And why, she asked herself, should one not quote those who saw the world more clearly than one did oneself?
Her north, her south; well, now they were walking north, on one of those prolonged Scottish summer evenings when it never really gets dark, and when one might forget just how far from south one really is. The fine weather had brought people out onto the grass; a group of young men, bare-chested in the unaccustomed warmth, were playing a game of football, discarded tee-shirts serving as the goal markers; a man was throwing a stick for a tireless border collie to fetch; a young couple lay stretched out, the girl’s head resting on the stomach of a bearded youth who was looking away, at something in the sky that only he could see. The air was heavy, and although it would soon be eight o’clock, there was still a good deal of sunlight about—soft, slanting sunlight, with the quality that goes with light that has been about for the whole day and is now comfortable, used.
The coincidence was that Jamie should suddenly broach the subject of what it must be like to feel thoroughly ashamed of oneself. Later on she asked herself why he had suddenly decided to talk about that. Had he seen something on the Meadows to trigger such a line of thought? Strange things were no doubt done in parks by shameless people, but hardly in the early evening, in full view of passersby, on an evening such as this. Had he seen some shameless piece of exhibitionism? She had read recently of a Catholic priest who went jogging in the nude, and explained that he did so on the grounds that he sweated profusely when he took exercise. Indeed, for such a person it might be more convenient not to be clad, but this was not Sparta, where athletes disported naked in the palaestra; this was Scotland, where it was simply too cold to do as in Sparta, no matter how classically minded one might be.
Whatever it was that prompted Jamie, he suddenly remarked: “What would it be like not to be able to go out in case people recognised you? What if you had done something so . . . so appalling that you couldn’t face people?”
Isabel glanced at him. “You haven’t, have you?”
He smiled. “Not yet.”
She looked up at the skyline, at the conical towers of the old Infirmary, at the crouching lion of Arthur’s Seat in the distance, beyond a line of trees. “Some who have done dreadful things don’t feel it at all,” she said. “They have no sense of shame. And maybe that’s why they did it in the first place. They don’t care what others think of them.”
Jamie thought about this for a moment. “But there are plenty of others, aren’t there? People who have done something out of character. People who have a conscience and who yet suddenly have given in to passing temptation. Some dark urge. They must feel ashamed of themselves, don’t you think?”
Isabel agreed. “Yes, they must. And I feel so sorry for them.” It had always struck her as wrong that we should judge ourselves—or, more usually, others—by single acts, as if a single snapshot said anything about what a person had been like over the whole course of his life. It could say something, of course, but only if it was typical of how that person behaved; otherwise, no, all it said was that at that moment, in those particular circumstances, temptation won a local victory.
They walked on in silence. Then Isabel said, “And what about being made to feel ashamed of what you are? About being who you are.”
“But do people feel that?”
Isabel thought that they did. “Plenty of people feel ashamed of being poor,” she said. “They shouldn’t, but many do. Then some feel ashamed of being a different colour from those around them. Again, they shouldn’t. And others feel ashamed of not being beautiful, of having the wrong sort of chin. Of having the wrong number of chins. All of these things.”
“It’s ridiculous.”
“Of course it is.” Jamie, she realised, could say that; the blessed do not care from what angle they are regarded, as Auden . . . She stopped herself, and thought instead of moral progress, of how much worse it had been only a few decades ago. Things had changed for the better: now people asserted their identities with pride; they would not be cowed into shame. Yet so many lives had been wasted, had been ruined, because of unnecessary shame.
She remembered a friend’s mother who had discovered, at the age of twelve, that she was illegitimate, that the father who had been said to have been killed in an accident was simply not there, a passing, regretted dalliance that had resulted in her birth. Today that meant very little, when vast cohorts of children sprang forth from maternity hospitals without fathers who had signed up to anything, but for that woman, Isabel had been told, the rest of her life, from twelve onwards, was to be spent in shame. And with that shame there came the fear that others would find out about her illegitimacy, would stumble upon her secret. Stolen lives, Isabel thought, lives from which the joy had been extracted; and yet we could not banish shame altogether—she herself had written that in one of her editorials in the Review of Applied Ethics, in a special issue on the emotions. Without shame, guilt became a toothless thing, a prosecutor with no penalties up his sleeve.
They were on their way to a dinner party, and had decided to walk rather than call a taxi, since the evening was so inviting. Their host lived in Ramsay Garden, a cluster of flats clinging to the edge of the Castle Rock like an impossible set constructed by some operatic visionary and then left for real people to move into. From the shared courtyard below, several cream-harled buildings, with tagged-on staircases and balconies, grew higgledy-piggledy skywards, their scale and style an odd mixture of Arts and Crafts and Scottish baronial. It was an expensive place to live, much sought-after for the views which the flats commanded over Princes Street and the Georgian New Town beyond.
She had told Jamie who their hosts were, but he had forgotten, and he asked her again as they climbed the winding stairway to the topmost flat. She found herself thinking: Like all men, he does not listen. Men switch off and let you talk, but all the time something else is going on in their minds.
“Fleurs-de-lis,” said Isabel, running her hand along the raised plaster motifs on the wall of the stairway. “Who are they? People I don’t know very well. And I think that I owe them, anyway. I was here for dinner three years ago, if I remember correctly. And I never invited them back. I meant to, but didn’t. You know how it is.”
She smiled at herself for using the excuse You know how it is. It was such a convenient, all-purpose excuse that one could tag it on to just about anything. And what did it say? That one was human, and that one should be forgiven on those grounds? Or that the sheer weight of circumstances sometimes made it difficult to live up to what one expected of oneself? It was such a flexible excuse, and one might use it for the trivial or the not so trivial. Napoleon, for instance, might say, Yes, I did invade Russia; I’m so sorry, but you know how it is.
Jamie ended her reverie. “They’ve forgiven you,” he said. “Or they weren’t counting.”
“Do you have to invite people back?” Isabel asked. “Is it wrong to accept an invitation if you know that you won’t reciprocate?”
Jamie ran his finger across the fleurs-de-lis. “But you haven’t told me who they are.”
“I was at school with her,” said Isabel. “She was very quiet. People laughed at her a bit—you know how children are. She had an unfortunate nickname.”
“Which was?”
Isabel shook her head. “I’m sorry, Jamie, I shouldn’t tell you.” That was how nicknames were perpetuated; how her friend, Sloppy Duncan, was still Sloppy Duncan thirty years after the name was first minted.
Product details
- Publisher : Pantheon (September 23, 2008)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 256 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0375425136
- ISBN-13 : 978-0375425134
- Item Weight : 13 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.71 x 0.96 x 8.53 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #789,086 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #5,793 in Traditional Detective Mysteries (Books)
- #16,112 in Contemporary Women Fiction
- #21,062 in Women Sleuths (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Alexander McCall Smith is one of the world’s most prolific and most popular authors. His career has been a varied one: for many years he was a professor of Medical Law and worked in universities in the United Kingdom and abroad. Then, after the publication of his highly successful 'No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency' series, which has sold over twenty million copies, he devoted his time to the writing of fiction and has seen his various series of books translated into over forty-six languages and become bestsellers through the world. These include the Scotland Street novels, first published as a serial novel in The Scotsman, the Isabel Dalhousie novels, the Von Igelfeld series, and the Corduroy Mansions series, novels which started life as a delightful (but challenging to write) cross-media serial, written on the website of the Telegraph Media Group. This series won two major cross-media awards - Association of Online Publishers Digital Publishing Award 2009 for a Cross Media Project and the New Media Age award.
In addition to these series, Alexander writes stand-alone books. 2014 sees publication of three new novels which fall into this area: 'The Forever Girl'; 'Fatty O’Leary’s Dinner Party'; and 'Emma' – a reworking of the classic Jane Austen novel. This year there will also be a stunning book on Edinburgh, 'A Work of Beauty: Alexander McCall Smith’s Edinburgh'. Earlier stand alone novels include 'La’s Orchestra Saves the World' and 'Trains and Lovers: A Hearts Journey'.
Alexander is also the author of collections of short stories, academic works, and over thirty books for children. He has received numerous awards for his writing, including the British Book Awards Author of the Year Award in 2004 and a CBE for service to literature in 2007. He holds honorary doctorates from nine universities in Europe and North America. In March of 2011 he received an award from the President of Botswana for his services through literature to that country.
Alexander McCall Smith lives in Edinburgh. He is married to a doctor and has two daughters.
Customer reviews
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the book engaging and well-written. They describe it as uplifting, soothing, and joyful. Readers appreciate the author's wit and whimsy. The books are described as fun, smart, and great for reading on long flights or when you feel like an escape from reality. Customers get involved with the characters and care about their lives. The book offers insightful information and thought-provoking content.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers enjoy the book. They find it delightful, enjoyable, and a pleasure to read the author's work. The book is described as beautiful, honest, and well-written.
"I love McCall-Smith, I find his books soothing and wise and feminine yet balanced (this probably comes from their being written by a man!)...." Read more
"He has a style that is his own. In a way it is predictable...." Read more
"In a world of excess and detachment, it is an incomparable pleasure to read an author's work which deals with how humans interconnect and how we..." Read more
"...I so appreciate a writer that can write about being happy and make it utterly appealing without having to make something bad happen...." Read more
Customers enjoy the engaging stories and mysteries. They appreciate the author's writing style and find the books an easy, relaxing read. The stories start out gently and build to a crescendo, with high-quality writing.
"This is another example of why Alexander McCall Smith is such a unique author...." Read more
"As usual, Smith delivers a sweet, entertaining, slight book...." Read more
"...My husband and I have read everything this wonderful author has written, and eagerly await each new offering. Oh, thank you, dear Mr. A. M. Smith!..." Read more
"...Keep writing!" Read more
Customers find the book soothing and uplifting. They describe it as a lovely story of happy people who are in love and help others. The author's love for life and people is evident.
"...Prepare to be inspired and have your opinions and intellect challenged and stretched...." Read more
"A lovely story of happy people who are in love and occasionally help others … those well spend in order to achieve a heart warming feeling .." Read more
"...portrait of life in Edinburgh is both thought-provoking and emotionally delicious as we follow Isabel's ups and downs and find ourselves strangely..." Read more
"...they are presented with such a light hand, and such an obvious love for life and people and places that I always feel better after spending time..." Read more
Customers find the books witty, amusing, and sweet. They appreciate the author's ability to write about happiness without being condescending or insulting. The characters are well-developed and the romance elements are tasteful.
"...At the same time, they're not condescending or insulting to the reader...." Read more
"...being a little bit of a closet romantic, I like the tasteful romantic interest thrown in. More, Alexander McCall Smith!" Read more
"...I so appreciate a writer that can write about being happy and make it utterly appealing without having to make something bad happen...." Read more
"Beautiful book, great characters, written honestly but with kindness...." Read more
Customers enjoy the books. They find them fun, smart, and witty. The books are great for reading on long flights or when you need an escape from reality.
"As usual, Smith delivers a sweet, entertaining, slight book...." Read more
"...I find this series to be good bed-time reading, as the chapters are short, and nothing there to give bad dreams. ...nor to provoke further thought." Read more
"...Great for reading on a long flight or when you feel like an escape from reality!" Read more
"...Recommend as great reading for all teens and adults." Read more
Customers enjoy the book's characters. They find them engaging and get invested in their lives.
"...Charming lead characters are complex and flawed and inspiring all at the same time...." Read more
"...I always get involved in his characters' lives, care bout them and can't wait to read more about them...." Read more
"Beautiful book, great characters, written honestly but with kindness...." Read more
"...The characters are as lovable as always, and as predictable...." Read more
Customers enjoy the book's insight. They find it informative and engaging, with correct information about history and art. The book is thought-provoking and keeps readers interested throughout. Readers appreciate the author's constant analysis and thoughtfulness, which enriches their lives.
"...her predictability, her strong ethics, her constant thinking and analyzing, and her never-ending interfering into the lives of people to help them..." Read more
"...McCall's extended portrait of life in Edinburgh is both thought-provoking and emotionally delicious as we follow Isabel's ups and downs and find..." Read more
"Like all his books he takes quite ordinary situation and infuses with wisdom, gentleness of spirit and leaves one to contemplate the issues raised..." Read more
"...The mysteries are well written and keep me interested all through the book." Read more
Customers enjoy the book's philosophical perspective and moral ambiguity. They find the character Isabel Dalhousie thoughtful and engaging. While not the author's best work, the book is thought-provoking and entertaining for philosophical women.
"...here is made enjoyable by McCall Smith's humorous and insightful peeks into human nature through Isabel's philosophical meanderings...." Read more
"...This series is not Smith's best, but philosophic women will find it entertaining...." Read more
"A calm and gentle story. I like the philosophical outlook of Isabel Dalhousie and the moral conundrums posed by her involvement in peoples' problems." Read more
"...Really enjoyed reading about a "thoughtful" woman, a woman who asks questions of a philosophical nature...." Read more
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2008This is another example of why Alexander McCall Smith is such a unique author. I enjoy following Isabel Dalhousie and the events surrounding the other characters in this series. However, as in the best of things, it's not so much about the destination as it is the journey. The journey here is made enjoyable by McCall Smith's humorous and insightful peeks into human nature through Isabel's philosophical meanderings. I also enjoy the way he discreetly pokes fun at societal quirks that we are all familiar with but may not have really noticed. This is a book to be savored like good chocolate.
- Reviewed in the United States on August 21, 2010As usual, Smith delivers a sweet, entertaining, slight book. His books are great travel reading (I'm a slow reader; one lasts me from the Pacific Coast to the East Coast, without a nagging chapter following me to the hotel)and perfect for gifts to hospitalized friends (they're never depressing or too heavy). At the same time, they're not condescending or insulting to the reader. This story may concentrate too much on the romance between Isabel and her handsome, talented, sensitive young lover, but it doesn't detract too much.
- Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2018You are never disappointed with any of Alexander McCall Smith's books. Prepare to be inspired and have your opinions and intellect challenged and stretched. Charming lead characters are complex and flawed and inspiring all at the same time. With the strokes of his pen/keyboard, Mr Smith transports you to Edinburgh....his genius allows you to feel like you are living with the characters through all the situations presented. A joyful read!
- Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2023A lovely story of happy people who are in love and occasionally help others … those well spend in order to achieve a heart warming feeling ..
- Reviewed in the United States on August 5, 2013I love the Isabel Dalhousie series and am walking through them one at a time. I feel like Isabel is an old friend now, and she does just what I expect her to do about things. I love her, her predictability, her strong ethics, her constant thinking and analyzing, and her never-ending interfering into the lives of people to help them sort things out! And of course, being a little bit of a closet romantic, I like the tasteful romantic interest thrown in. More, Alexander McCall Smith!
- Reviewed in the United States on December 22, 2013The 5th book in the Sunday Philosophy Club series has Isabel looking into another interesting ethical issue. She is asked to check into the case of a doctor who has been discredited for bad data regarding a drug that he evaluated in clinical trial, from a company that sponsored his research. She is also dealing with an ethical problem relating to her journal when her former rival for the editorship submits an article. Does she accept it to lay the feud to rest, dismiss it out of hand, or find another course? When she begins to investigate the drug scandal, she finds that perhaps there may be a reason for an involved family member to frame the doctor. Meanwhile, in her personal life, she feels insecure about Jamie's friendship with a conductor, and worries that he is hiding things from her. She also makes a loan to Eddie at Cat's deli and wonders if she made a big mistake in doing this. Things are not always what they seem and Isabel comes to some surprising conclusions to these puzzles.
- Reviewed in the United States on November 11, 2008This one will keep you up all night turning pages, even if you are not already hooked on Isabel Dalhousie and company.
McCall's extended portrait of life in Edinburgh is both thought-provoking and emotionally delicious as we follow Isabel's ups and downs and find ourselves strangely comforted by the humanity and vulnerability of her life.
Will her beloved Jamie be enticed by an American composer to leave Edinburgh to further his career as a concert bassoonist? Did the doctor do it? Why does Grace claim Isabel's baby boy Charlie is her own son? Will Cat ever figure out why she chooses the wrong men? Do people, even nice Edinburgh people, actually go about telling lies every day?
Curl up with a cup of strong black tea with cream and plenty of sugar as you get to know Isabel a little better.
You won't regret it.
- Reviewed in the United States on November 24, 2014I love McCall-Smith, I find his books soothing and wise and feminine yet balanced (this probably comes from their being written by a man!). I always get involved in his characters' lives, care bout them and can't wait to read more about them. Plots are not the point; human interaction and thoughts are, and they are presented with such a light hand, and such an obvious love for life and people and places that I always feel better after spending time with these books. Do not buy the Dalhousie or the Precious Ramotswe series (which I also love) if you want a proper detective story, but do buy them and enjoy them all, possibly in chronological order, if you want to be reconciled with life. Sounds like a lot to ask from books, but read them and you will see what I mean!
Top reviews from other countries
- Amazon CustomerReviewed in the United Kingdom on June 23, 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars The comfort of Saturdays
Yet another lovely book in the Isabel Dalhousie series. Gentle, easy read. Perfect for a dull ,dreary afternoon in a depressing Summer!
- WK ElaineOReviewed in Canada on July 9, 2021
5.0 out of 5 stars It's a book
It's a book.
- George ThomasReviewed in India on February 1, 2016
5.0 out of 5 stars Charming meandering in philosophy
A charming book, full of insights into the foibles of humans. Nuanced where ethical dilemmas have no clear answer.
-
jasmin d'étéReviewed in France on October 26, 2009
5.0 out of 5 stars On ne peut plus s'en passer du club des philosophes du dimanche
Elle doit enquêter sur la mise à l'écart d'un grand médecin et la mort du patient de celui-ci. Est il coupable d'avoir mis ce médicament sur le marché? Est-il au contraire une victime , le bouc émissaire du marché des laboratoires ? Isabel essaie de trouver la vérité et de retrouver le calme et la paix et la douce tranquillité des samedis auprès de son bébé et son amant Jamie.
Elle a tellement de choses à nous raconter Isabel Dalhousie! Et nous la suivons à Édimbourg mais aussi dans les montagnes et lacs écossais car là où elle nous mène ,elle nous enchante !
Lorsque le livre se termine, on n'a plus qu'une seule idée, celle de guetter le prochain livre de la série.
- THOMAS KURUVILLAReviewed in India on February 15, 2017
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
good