Isabel Dalhousie

A friend of mine, also called Isabel, is a fan of Alexander McCall Smith.

So when I saw “Friends, Lovers, Chocolate” in a book corner, I picked it up without much thinking.

Isabel is an unusual heroine. She is an independent academic philosopher, just like Schopenhauer: inherited wealth permitted her to pursue the busy editorship of the fictional “Review of Applied Ethics” with little pay.

In form, “Friends, Lovers, Chocolate” is very loosely a detection novel: Isabel’s pursuit of a puzzle pushes the plot forward.

But what struck me the most was Isabel’s slow, deliberate thinking process. At first it felt very ponderous, almost unreal. But then what else would you expect of a privileged retiree who is into philosophy?