Isabel Dalhousie on whiskey afficianados:
“They were people, she imagined, who did not disapprove of their fellow man, unlike those who patrolled mores today; these people were tolerant, just as gourmets, by and large, tended to have tolerant, expansive outlooks. It was the obsessive dieters who were unhappy and anxious.”
This is a sample of the wonderful prose that fills Alexander McCall Smith’s The Sunday Philosophy Club. It’s technically a mystery in the sense that someone has died and Isabel, the protagonist, wants to find out why. But it’s much more concerned with Isabel’s musings on larger issues.
She’s the editor of the Review of Applied Ethics, a woman of independent means and a tendency to meddle living in Edinburgh, Scotland. She’s also a complete delight, much like Smith’s other sleuth, Precious Romatswe, Botswana’s first lady private investigator. Smith’s books and characters manage to be thought-provoking and comforting as a grilled cheese sandwich at the same time.
And… um… I really like them. No, not much of a point other than that. Carry on.