I read this Isabel Dalhousie at a bad time (poor Isabel): way too busy with school and holiday stuff, fighting off a stubborn, low key, but obnoxious cold, and intermingled with a few other books that are faster-moving than she ever is. For all those reasons, I didn't find this Isabel outstanding: too little, too slow, too much philosophy, too few points of human interest. My preoccupations aside, the book read as if McCall Smith ripped through writing it so he could get on to something else, and perhaps didn't give it the time, attention, and development it deserved. If he did so, I hope he neglected FAY in favor of a Mme. Ramotswe novel, and not one of the terrible Portugese Irregular Verbs series.

But: I will add that I find all of the Isabel series enchanting as audiobooks, so perhaps if I'd listened as opposed to reading, my review would've been quite different. Since I've asked for an ipod for Christmas so I can partake of audiobooks more easily, perhaps I'll be able to make that judgement quite soon!