Louis Post-Dispatch calls Isabel 'the anti-Precious' and suggests that the novel will 'delight McCall Smith's existing fans and win him some new ones'.

Likewise, The Times Online calls the novel 'airless and exhausting' and adds that 'We can only hope that the Sunday Philosophy Club remains indefinitely postponed'. agrees, calling the story 'slightly ponderous' and advising that 'the tone is a bit daunting for readers who never progressed beyond Philosophy 101 in college'. 1 Lady Detective' Precious Ramotswe) and describes her philosophical musings as 'less than riveting' it concludes that the novel is 'the literary equivalent of herbal tea and a cozy fire'. 2) Lady Detective Philosopher' (in comparison to the 'No. The book garnered mixed reviews, with many reviewers comparing it unfavourably to McCall Smith's better-known series The No. The book marks the first literary appearance of the Really Terrible Orchestra, a real-life amateur orchestra co-founded by McCall in 1995. The original title of the book was The Crushed Strawberry, named for the colour of Toby's trousers, but it was changed to The Sunday Philosophy Club after a suggestion by McCall Smith's editor. She decides to find out what really happened. As the young man falls, she catches his eye, and sees an expression of shock of his face, which suggests to her that the police's verdict of suicide is wrong. Her closest friends are her niece Cat, a young attractive woman who runs a delicatessen her housekeeper Grace, an outspoken woman with an interest in spiritualism Cat's ex-boyfriend Jamie, a bassoonist to whom Isabel has been secretly attracted ever since they met and Brother Fox, an urban fox who lives in Isabel's garden.ĭuring a trip to the theatre, Isabel sees a young man fall to his death from the gods. Thanks to a large inheritance left to her by her late mother, she is able to work for a nominal fee as the editor of the Review of Applied Ethics.

Isabel Dalhousie is a philosopher in her early forties and lives alone in a large aging house in the south of Edinburgh. The Sunday Philosophy Club is the first of the Sunday Philosophy Club series of novels by Alexander McCall Smith, set in Edinburgh, Scotland, and featuring the protagonist Isabel Dalhousie.

The sunday philosophy club