I generally liked it, full of philosophical thoughts and insights but lacking a mystery. I didn't hear one, but enjoyable nonetheless. ( )

I have read other books in this series, and in those books, Isabel was already with Jamie. After reading this, I finally knew how they got together. That's the most interesting bit for me. Otherwise, the book could be one-third shorter. Although McCall Smith explained why Isabel digresses so much, some of her thoughts and reflections are rather dull and drag the plot. ( )

97 "'And the man with whom she had this affair...he dropped your mother when he heard she was ill. That wasn't his plan, you see. Your mother was very attractive, and it was fine to have an affair with a beautiful, engaging woman, even if she was someone else's wife - that made it exciting for him, I suppose. But it was quite another thing to have an affair with a woman who was dying...The sick are not romantic, despite of Rodolpho and my namesake in their garret. It's a different sort of love that puts up with illness. Old love."
174 "She remembered the poem that Yates had written to Anne Gregory about how only God would love somebody for herself and not her yellow hair. She knew she would not feel the way she did about Jamie if he were not good-looking. And that, she thought, was a dispiriting conclusion, for it meant that it was really a love of beauty that was at work; we love the beautiful, and we find it in a person."
180 "...the phrase your ordinary human beauty came into her mind, and it seemed to her to be so apt. Beauty was so ordinary because it required no ornament, no false enhancement; that was ordinary human beauty and it was superior to any other beauty."
201 "I sound petulant, and she thought: a philosopher in the countryside, where talking is not always necessary."
211 "Love paints the world,, she thought, enables us to see its beauty, it's vulnerability, its preciousness."
241 "two deep-seated male desires: to have secrets and to belong"

I'm not sure I can even tag this as mystery, because ... there wasn't a mystery in it? In fact, it hardly had a plot, unless you count Jamie and Isabella's relationship, which was the only consistent thing throughout the book.

Even so, I enjoyed it more than the last book in the series? There were some really nice moments, like with the old possibly lesbian lady who regretted not moving in with a girl earlier in her life. Such heartbreak and so on.

Still, there are a bit too many similarities between this book and the 44 Scotland Street series that still bug me. The characters are little too much like each other, with not enough different jobs and so. But it's enjoyable and easy to read, so that's nice. ( )

Love is patient, allegedly. But sometimes it’s rather insistent, especially if it is standing right there in front of you demanding that it be acknowledged. Isabel Dalhousie has long has special feelings for Jamie, the tall, handsome, gentle man whom her niece once dated, then rejected. Jamie is a musician, a singer, and a bassoonist. And he is the nicest man that Isabel has ever known. But could he be more? Could they?

The path of love is not always straight but it can sometimes be true. And here it feels so right that Isabel and Jamie should end up together. Though “end up” sounds wrong. Rather that they should go on together. However with so many examples around them of mistaken relationships and outright bad choices (and people), it’s small wonder that they might be suspicious of the possibility of love for themselves. After there is the special barrier between them in this case — Isabel is a philosopher!

As this series develops, Alexander McCall Smith’s characters become richer and more believable, but also more vulnerable to harm. Which might be unbearable from the reader’s perspective. Fortunately he offers just enough intrigue and happenstance to balance the onward development of Isabel and Jamie’s love. Very sweet.

And easy to recommend. ( )