The Comforts of a Muddy Saturday
by Alexander McCall Smith
Published by Pantheon Books (September 23 release)
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Reviewed by Gene Hayworth
It is tempting to suggest that Alexander McCall Smith does not exist, to propose that a group of contemporary authors, like the collection that penned the Nancy Drew mysteries under the name Carolyn Keene, are having a grand time together plotting the plights of Precious Ramotswe or the philosophical dilemmas of Isabel Dalhousie. After all, Smith has managed to publish over 20 books in 10 years. Yet the question should not be how he has accomplished this feat, but how he has managed to do it so well. Smith’s characters and the intrigues that preoccupy them are consistently clever, delightful, and captivating.
The latest title in the Sunday Philosophers’ Club series, The Comforts of a Muddy Saturday, is no exception. As editor of the Review of Applied Ethics, Isabel Dalhousie, the central figure in the series, views the events of her life as a series of moral dilemmas. She struggles with feelings of jealousy over her lover’s friends, ponders the consequences of her inherited wealth against the circumstances of those who are less fortunate, and weighs her sometimes harsh judgments regarding the behavior of others against her own imperfect moral code.
When Isabel is asked to investigate allegations of medical fraud, Isabel attempts to assist an old-fashioned Scottish physician who is consumed by guilt for publishing medical findings based on falsified data. His findings promoted the use of a new antibiotic that has resulted in a patient’s death. Isabel is determined to learn who falsified the data and to clear the doctor’s name.
The moral issues and ambiguities at the heart of The Comforts of a Muddy Saturday are universal. Isabel Dalhousie may make a few mistakes, but her flaws are human. Readers will easily empathize with her predicaments.
Armchair Interviews agrees.
Author’s Web site: http://www.McCallSmith.com