The Charming Quirks of Others - Alexander McCall Smith

The Charming Quirks of Others is the seventh novel in the Isabel Dalhousie series, a series which is also known as the Sunday Philosophy Club series, although I don't think the Sunday Philosophy Club ever really existed. I should probably declare my hand early - I love this series. I haven't read any other books by McCall Smith, not even the first para of the acclaimed No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. And I don't think I want to, not at the moment anyway. But I do adore Isabel Dalhousie, even when she's driving me crazy.

The Sunday Philosophy Club came into my life accidentally. Three years ago, a friend sent me the first two books - The Sunday Philosophy Club and Friends, Lovers, Chocolates - when I was facing a long period of illness. They proved to be the perfect antidote - gentle, thoughtful, philosophical, humourous, engaging and slightly romantic. They are also set in Edinburgh, a city I've had a long love affair with. It began with a short acquaintance during my first overseas trip and continued through the pages of novels, mostly Ian Rankin's Rebus series.

Rebus' Edinburgh, of course, is pretty gritty. It's the Edinburgh of pubs and pool halls, council estates that brush against historical sites, the crime scene and the morgue. Isabel Dalhousie's Edinburgh is far more genteel. Hers is the Edinburgh of concert halls and art galleries and, in this novel, of old schools and Sir Walter Scott's home, Abbotsford. But as in the Rebus novels, the past is never very far from the present and by page 3, Isabel is once again reflecting on the Stuarts.

There's always a bit of a mystery in Isabel's life - philosophically, she can't resist requests for help - but the mystery is really (I suspect) just the excuse, the technical framework on which to hang the story. This time around, Isabel is asked to look into a poison-pen letter.

I don't read Isabel Dalhousie books for the mystery, though. I read to revisit the deli run by Isabel's niece, Cat, where the coffee is always fresh and the Italian newspapers are delivered daily. I read for the gentle, surprising relationship that has developed between Isabel and Cat's former boyfriend, the beautiful Jamie. I read too for the housekeeper, Grace, who believes in the afterlife and goes to 'meetings' to contact the dead. And for the war between Isabel and the deliciously named Lettuce and Dove. Mostly, though, I read for the charm of the writing, for the sheer joy of reading this:

He shook his head. 'You're doing it again. Inventing things. Whole stories now. Making them up.'

She got to her feet. 'But that's what the world is all about, Jamie. Stories. Stories explain everything, bring everything together.'

Stories explain everything.