As its title suggests, Alexander McCall Smith‘s The Charming Quirks of Others (2010) isn’t your typical mystery. Nobody dies, nobody gets mugged or robbed, nobody even gets hurt. Even the investigator isn’t the typical mystery sleuth.
Moral philosopher Isabel Dalhousie, who edits a philosophy journal, is asked by an acquaintance to quietly investigate three candidates for the headmaster position at a local academy, as an anonymous letter writer has suggested that one of them has something to hide. A longtime resident of Edinburgh, Isabel finds it easy to make inquiries of friends and acquaintances to learn a bit about each candidate’s backstory.
Isabel being Isabel, though, along the way we meander into philosophical musings about … well, almost anything; Isabel’s relationship with her younger lover Jamie; and what W.H. Auden would say; not to mention her ongoing battle with fellow philosophers, Professors Dove and Lettuce. This is the seventh book in the series, so I wouldn’t recommend starting here, but if the idea of reading about a philosopher who meets charming people and solves quirky mysteries doesn’t immediately turn you off, try reading one of these books. I read the first one just because I love Edinburgh, but all of these books have an allure you won’t find elsewhere.
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P.S. As the editor of an academic journal, I can assure you that Isabel’s adventures on that front are almost entirely fictional!
Karen – Thanks for reviewing a book in this series. Admittedly, Isabel Dalhousie isn’t for everyone. This series isn’t, as you say, about your typical sleuth. And I’ll be candid; I prefer his No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series. But I do like the atmosphere in the Isabel Dalhousie books, and the low-key approach…
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It has a very different kind of charm as compared to the No. 1 Ladies, but they each represent their places (Edinburgh, Botswana) in such lovely ways. I always look forward to the next book in each series.
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