Wednesday, August 8, 2007

The Right Attitude to Rain

THE RIGHT ATTITUDE TO RAIN: Alexander McCall Smith: Pantheon Books, c2006: Mystery Fiction: 276 pgs.

For everyone who can’t get enough of Alexander McCall Smith and his best-selling #1 Ladies Detective Agency series, he started another. Though this time, set in his very own native Scotland. This is the 3rd in the Isabel Dalhousie mystery series. Isabel is a comfortably well off Scottish woman in her 40’s with a love of her country and kin. An intellectual, she’s the editor for the “Review of Applied Ethics”, a philosophy journal, which allows her (and the reader) to contemplate the never-ending moral dilemmas facing humankind. She’s always engaged in a mystery of sorts, some truly ethical conundrum, and her cautious undertakings in a May/December romance (the cast-off boyfriend of her niece, no less).

It’s an interesting mix and the stories always leave me wondering if Isabel isn’t just an autobiographical figure of Smith. It’s full of Scottish tradition, poetry, art, and music—so you’re in for a treat if you’ve always wanted to explore Scotland, but your budget has been less than convenient.

DLA

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