Isabel as investigator

Isabel Dalhousie, philosopher, is the heroine of the Sunday Philosophy Club series by Alexander McCall Smith set in Edinburgh and featuring this author's usual diverse characters.

The Forgotten Affairs of Youth (Little, Brown, pbk) has Isabel in her role of investigator, trying to trace the parents of fellow philosopher Jane, born in Edinburgh but adopted at birth and taken to Australia.

Jane has some records of her mother but none of her father, so Isabel uses her contacts in the city to find out what she can. The search seems straightforward and a result is soon achieved. But complications arise and Isabel reluctantly concludes that she has done the wrong thing for the right reason.

There are problems, too, with the dastardly Professor Lettuce, who is unceasing in his efforts to unseat Isabel from her position as editor of the Review of Applied Ethics. Nearer home Isabel has to deal with the discovery that her small son Charlie has picked up some unpleasant swear words at his nursery school and (more worrying for a philosopher) is demanding repeated reading of Little Black Sambo as his bedtime story. Add to all this a bout of food poisoning following a meal of dodgy mushrooms bought from her niece's delicatessen and Isabel has her hands full.

There is plenty of quiet humour and gentle satire in this engaging novel, although a cynical reader might conclude that the comfortable lives portrayed here are not truly representative of today's society. I find these stories refreshingly upbeat, reflecting the inherent kindness and goodwill we all would like to experience in our lives.

 - Helen Adams is a Dunedin reader.