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    The Sunday Philosophy Club
    The Sunday Philosophy Club
    The Sunday Philosophy Club
    Audiobook8 hours

    The Sunday Philosophy Club

    Written by Alexander McCall Smith

    Narrated by Davina Porter

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    From internationally best-selling author Alexander McCall Smith, creator of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, comes a new mystery series brimming with the same wit and charm. Isabel Dalhousie is a philosopher by training, and an amateur sleuth by choice. When a young man falls from a balcony to his death, Isabel does not believe it was an accident. Plunging deep into the shady business community of Edinburgh, she is determined to root out the truth.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateOct 6, 2004
    ISBN9781436101479
    The Sunday Philosophy Club
    Author

    Alexander McCall Smith

    Alexander McCall Smith is the author of the award-winning series The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency, and he now devotes his time to the writing of fiction, including the 44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie series. He is the author of over eighty books on a wide array of subjects, and his work has been translated into forty-six languages. Before becoming a full-time writer he was for many years Professor of Medical Law at Edinburgh.

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    Reviews for The Sunday Philosophy Club

    3.5/5

    52 ratings39 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Resist the temptation to compare it with the "Detective Agency" series. Each of his series has its own special color. In this, he blends relevant philosophical musings into the easy-going mystery.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      Not nearly as good as the No. 1 Lady's Detective Agency, but a nice cozy mystery.
    • 3/5
      It is hard to give this a fair review since I am such a huge fan of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series that McCall writes, but I found this very disappointing. I did not enjoy the philosophical tangents that speckle the novel. Most of them were deeply flawed even on the face of it. It is hard to believe that someone like Isabel Dalhousie would miss some such basic facets of arguments as she seemed to in her ramblings. I thought over all the whole thing was very lackluster. I am not sure if I will read any further into the series.
    • 4/5
      The first in the Sunday Philosophy Club series featuring Isabel Dalhousie. I found this a fascinating and enjoyable read.
    • 3/5
      I had a hard time getting into "The Sunday Philosophy Club". It started with a bang, so to speak, and then droned on and on while it introduced the reader to Isabel Dalhousie and her repertoire, even before we knew why, or if, we wanted to know about them.You cannot even be sure it was a mystery until the book was more than half done. And then it looks like it might lead up to a fairly contemporary tale of financial shenanigans. It is evident that a "thriller" style of writing is not Alexander McCall Smith's forte. His style is best suited for the "slice of life" style as done in his "No. 1 Ladies Detective" series or "44 Scotland Street".I found the "philosophy" interesting but tedious. I suspect that if it could have been written more as dialog, rather than stream of consciousness, it could have been more effective.I will say that by the end of the book, Smith had done a good job of drawing out his main and, I assume, continuing characters and treating us to another side of life in Edinburgh. I will likely try the next book in the series when I find it.
    • 2/5
      Maybe this book just wasn't intended for my demographic. I could not get into the story of an older woman with a taste for philosophy and small town mysteries. Each time the author inserted some bit of his life into the novel, I rolled my eyes a little harder. Not a series I'll be pursuing.
    • 4/5
      A fine story, a new miss Marple, living in Edinburgh who is nosy enough to indagate a strange story of homicide she assisted... Well written (I've read it in Italian...) the story keep you intersted till the end.
    • 3/5
       Isabel Dalhousie is a middle aged spinster in Edinburgh, a philosopher with some time on her hands and a niece called Cat (who is with the wrong man). All of which means she has a tendency to get involved in other people's lives. She's at a concert at the Usher hall when she sees a man fall from the gods, but did he fall, or was he pushed? She has no need to get involved, but she does, starting to ask questions about how he came to fall over the barrier, was it an accident, suicide or murder. She soon becomes convinced that the answer lies in some murky financial dealings, but how to prove it.

      She's in the Miss Marple style, trying to draw conclusions based on her knowledge of human nature, but she's not necessarily as good at this as she seems to think. In several instances she leaps to an unwarranted conclusion, one of which has her in danger.

      there's also a smidge too much philosophy for my tastes, but it's a reasonable read. I might not actively seek out the other books in the series, but I'd not steer clear either.
    • 4/5
      If you are a recovering Philosophy Major, and a fan of the United Kingdom, I think you'll get a kick out of this book. An applied ethicist who solves mysteries. The mystery was fairly minor, however, and the book title is an excellent joke that runs through the book. Really, the book is about the people more than the plot. A very entertaining read.
    • 2/5
      I'm disappointed with this one. The main character is irritating and indecisive, a forty-something spinster desperately clinging to a university romance with a jerk of the highest order that played out to it's very predictable end several decades before while trying to convince her neice to go back to the milquetoast ex-boyfriend that she dumped months before because - shocker - she wasn't all that into him. No mystery, just a lot of whining. I won't buy another from this series.
    • 3/5
      This is an easy read, but depending on your style, it's not a light read. The pages are drenched in philosophical thoughts and references to artists, poets, psychologists, and other great thinkers. I enjoyed pondering the different subjects, looking up the references, and experiencing the Scottish culture. However, I did feel that the book could have benefited from the Philosophy Club actually meeting. It would have been nice to have some other view-points on the proposed subjects besides just Isabel's. Also, despite this being a mystery, there is no real story held within these pages. I think I would have enjoyed it more if the plot were strengthened and the book were longer. SPOILER: The ending of the book felt quite abrupt. The narrator philosophized about everything except the final issue of the murder. I realize that this is possibly a statement that some things are beyond pontificating and are simply right or wrong despite what the law says. However, it feels more like McCall Smith simply didn't want to write anymore.I like the main character of Mma Ramotswe in McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency better and thus find myself pulled back to that series more than to this one. But, this series is not without it's merit-especially if you're in a philosophical mood.
    • 1/5
      I persevered with this one, hoping it would improve, but it never did.I am intrigued as to why not. The first chapter is remarkably strong, containing two of those little insights which are what I look for in writers, both taking place after a young man falls to his death in a theatre. One is a bit obvious , but still effective and true to life - "The woman looked at Isabel with that sudden human intimacy that the witnessing of tragedy permitted", the other appears as the aforementioned Isabel talks to a Policeman - "It was a reproach, but not a severe one, as he saw that she was upset. For she was shaking now. He was familiar with that. Something happened and people began to shake. It was the reminder that frightened them ; the reminder of just how close to the edge we are in life, always, at every moment."It seems to me you need a certain attitude of mind to pick up on these points. How an accomplished writer who clearly does have that attitude of mind can`t make a half-way decent book out of it is beyond me.No doubt this tale of a philosopher with an interest in applied ethics failing to apply ethics to real-life despite her best, most earnest endeavours, is intended as a gentle satire. Rightly or wrongly, it creates the impression that the writer is as solipsistic as his characters.What makes it worse is, I really wanted to like it !
    • 3/5
      This is set in Scotland and I enjoyed it, though not to the extent of the African mysteries by this author. I thought the mystery would be better than the African ones, but it wasn't. The author cheated, withholding facts. Still, I would read more in this series.
    • 3/5
      I listened to this talking book. I must say for some reason I found this book a bit tedious. I found the rambling of the Isobel Dalhousie's rambling tiresome. I was most disappointed with this book as I had so enjoyed 'The No. One Ladies Detective Agency and 'The Kalahari Typing School for Men. I have now borrowed another book in the Isabel Dalhousie series, I will see whether reading the next book is better than listening to it.
    • 3/5
      Isabel Dalhousie is a 40-something wealthy woman who lives a comfortable life in Edinburgh, splitting her time between her part-time editing job with The Review of Applied Ethics and watching anxiously over her niece Cat who has the regrettable habit of getting involved with all the wrong type of men. In between, she indulges in a curiosity about the affairs of others that is almost always born of her sense of moral obligation (one of the perils of philosophy) that can lead her into amateur sleuthing. While attending a concert, she witnesses the fall from an upper gallery and resultant death of a young man; being the last person the young man saw before his death, Isabel feels morally bound (Isabel feels morally bound in a great many ways) to discover what she can about him. Soon she suspects that the death is not an accident.Isabel Dalhousie is a “detective” in the tradition of Miss Marple, although she is not quite so enthusiastic about it. Edinburgh is portrayed as a very small town, charming, perhaps, but a bit stuffy. The characters are ok. Isabel, the most developed, agonizes constantly over the morality of every single action. You want to shake her and yell, “Just live, damn it! You’re going to make mistakes no matter how you intellectualize!”Good, but nothing special and not a keeper. Nothing that interests me in reading others of the series.
    • 2/5
      2.5 starsIsabel is a philosopher and editor of a journal, the Review of Applied Ethics. At the opera (?) one night, she sees a man fall from a balcony above her. The man dies, but Isabel is now interested in finding out what happened, exactly. It's too bad this really wasn't a mystery and the focus wasn't on figuring out what happened. There was a little bit of that, but mostly there was a lot of boring philosophy. Unfortunately, I accidentally picked up the second book in the series before realizing there was a first book. The title of the second one is appealing, but if it's anything like this one in content, I'm not sure if I want to try. I guess the good news is that it was fast to read.
    • 4/5
      A new angle for McCall Smith, back to his Scottish roots. An intriguing departure from the Botswana novels, but still covering the same moral ground. Another very enjoyable read.
    • 4/5
      You tend to know what to expect with this author: a simple, uncluttered writing style and a lot of laid-back reflection on life’s big questions. This series is the third of his that I’ve road tested, and it combines the woman-on-a-mission dynamic of his Ladies’ Detective Agency with the Scotland-is-a-cultural-paradise dynamic of 44 Scotland Street. It’s enjoyable enough, a bit of amateur sleuthing undertaken and resolved without me guessing whodunit or why, and paced well. I did feel from time to time the plot was secondary to matters of philosophy (clue is in the title, I suppose) or the depiction of Scotland in such a way as to counteract negative stereotyping. Certainly this is the polar opposite of stuff like ‘Trainspotting’ but perhaps both need to be read for balance! The central character, Isabel, was an OK character but disappointingly rich. She’s only my age but can afford a housekeeper, she can afford to waft around town buying paintings (by Scottish artists naturally) and she has an infinite amount of time available to solve cryptic crossword clues and ruminate about Kant. Such time is only available to the independently wealthy, those whose time is not taken up worrying about the price of, say, cheese. I’m betting she won’t be fretting over the Scottish Government’s plans for a minimum price per unit of alcohol. It rather reinforces the theory that philosophy is for the rich. One for the eponymous club to debate, perhaps.
    • 4/5
      Isabel Dalhousie, the fortyish editor of the Review of Applied Ethics, lives comfortably in Edinburgh in a house filled with art. She's got a morning room that looks out onto the garden; there's even a fox in the garden. Her mornings are spent with coffee and crosswords, followed by philosophical musings and a few hours of work (she lives on an inheritance, and her editorial work is more a labor of love than a living).As The Sunday Philosophy Club opens, Isabel is at the symphony, having gone to see the Reykjavik Symphony perform. As she mingles afterward she is horrified to see a young man plummet past her from the nosebleed seats--the gods, as they are poetically known--to his death below. An accident, or something more sinister? Try as Isabel might, she can't get it out of her mind, and is driven to pursue the mystery.The Sunday Philosophy Club is slow-moving, sweet, introspective, and gently humorous. As much time is spent inside Isabel's head as she turns over ethical issues--to tell a friend of a cheating spouse or not, one's responsibility to tell the truth to a stranger, the place of the white lie in civil society, and the like--as is spent chasing down the answer to the question of the death that starts it all off. The description is rich (I was ready to pack my bags and books and move to Edinburgh), as are the characterizations. Best of all is Isabel herself, whose inner life is deep and thoughtful, but who also lusts, much against her better judgment, for the much younger Jamie (who, in addition to being much younger, is also the ex-boyfriend of Isabel's niece and closest friend, Cat).
    • 3/5
      At first, Isabel Dalhousie annoyed me with her constant agonizing over every decision and her weakness for her estranged, adulterous ex-husband. Somewhere in the middle of The Sunday Philosophy Club, Isabel's character clicked into place and she became very enjoyable company. As part-time journal editor and full-time philosopher-heirees, Isabel has plenty of time to ponder the mysteries of everyday life. What is the right decision? Do we owe our friends honesty or sympathy? Why do people act against their own best interest? Her innate sense of moral duty drives her to become involved in the lives of others. The story begins as Isabel witnesses a young man fall to his death from a concert hall's upper balcony. Although it's ruled an accident, as the last person he saw before his death, Isabel is morally compelled to discover if he fell, leapt or was pushed and why. It's refreshing to meet a modern-day character who honestly wants to do well by others. In her eagerness to uncover truth, Isabel jumps to conclusions and finds herself in awkward predicaments. It's her flaws that make her both believable and charming. Without them she'd be an insufferable, rich do-gooder.
    • 2/5
      I’m on page 156 (of 247) of the first book in the “Isabel Dalhousie” series, and Ms. Dalhousie has done little more than pontificate on various problems. The problem which requires her investigative powers is this : a young man has fallen from the balcony of a concert hall, and his fall is witnessed by Isabel. It doesn’t look like an accident to her, so she sets out to investigate. There are also other secondary problems, such as her niece Cat’s (the niece runs a restaurant) unsuitable boy-friend, Toby.This book suffers when compared to the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency – it has very little of the charm and wit of the latter. Isabel seems nice and fair enough, but she thinks too much and does too little. Here’s an example of stuff she contemplates :“She checked herself. That was the third time that she had imagined him in a disaster, and she should stop. It was childish, uncharitable, and wrong. We have a duty to control our thoughts, she said to herself. We are responsible for our mental states, as she well knew from her reading in moral philosophy. The unbidden thought may arrive, and that was a matter of moral indifference, but we should not dwell on the harmful fantasy, because it was bad for our character, and besides, one might just translate fantasy into reality. It was a question of duty to self, in Kantian terms, and whatever she though about Toby, he did not deserve an avalanche or to be reduced to biscuits. Nobody could be said to deserve that, not even the truly wicked, or a member of the other Nemesis-tempting class, the totally egotistical.”It’s not that I disagree with Isabel (or Smith’s ) moral philosophy, but it would be nice to have the story keep pace with the philosophy. I had brought the first 2 books in the series, but now I think I’ll only read one.
    • 3/5
      After attending a concert, Isabel Dalhousie is one of the few people left in the auditorium when a young man falls to his death from the gods. She is unable to forget the sight of him falling past the grand circle and although it is ruled a tragic accident, she starts to investigate the circumstances of the death. She is very well off and employs a housekeeper to run her large house, and her part-time job editing a philosophy journal leaves her plenty of time to investigate the tragedy, while the fact that her niece knows one of the dead man's flatmates slightly gives her a place to start.Isabel is a rather annoying character and the detective story peters out towards the end of the book. I don't understand why the author gave it that title either; Isabel Dalhousie does run a Sunday philosophy club, but its members found Sunday afternoons an inconvenient time to meet, and it doesn't meet at all during the course of this book.I picked up the sequel at the Unconvention at the weekend so I will read it soon, but I wouldn't have spent money on buying it. At the moment I'm waiting for the 7th No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency book to come out in paperback - none of the author's other series are half as interesting.
    • 2/5
      I had a hard time with this book, as it was very stuffy and a bit TOO philosophical for my taste. I found myself skipping whole sections of philosophical fluff. I did not get attached to Isabel and found her character to be a bit boring.
    • 4/5
      Interesting read, although not quite as complete as I might like. In Edinburgh Isabel witnesses a fall in a concert hall where a man dies, she has questions as to whether it's an accident or deliberate and starts to look into it. It is obviously a first book in a series setting up further books in the series to follow on from this.
    • 3/5
      Liked this book, but I always wish Alexander McCall Smith would add more mystery to his mysteries. Listened to the audio version which was good.
    • 4/5
      Delicious. I love Isabel Dalhousie and want to marry her. And I'm gay.
    • 3/5
      As a fan of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, I found this book somewhat disappointing. The book is filled with quirky references to Edinburgh society and the main character, Isabel Dalhousie, is a 40 something woman of independent means who comes across as something of a fuddy duddy - I kept having to refer back to the passages which spoke of her age because she came across as an elderly woman. I will try to persevere with the rest of the series and hope that I can connect with something in the subsequent books.
    • 4/5
      The first in McCall Smith's latest series, starring Isabel Dalhousie as a part-time philosopher and an amateur detective. A man's mysterious death at a concert hall leads her to investigate the threads of his life involving people from different social strata in Edinburgh. More about decisions and consequences than the mystery itself, there is some suspense and the whodunit result is reasonably surprising.The tone and style is about halfway between two of his other series, No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency and 44 Scotland Street. It plumbs the depths a bit more than the latter, but the story is not as well-plotted as in the former. Overall, a very enjoyable and quick read as usual, with a few laugh-out-loud moments.
    • 4/5
      The author wastes no time in engaging readers of The Sunday Philosophy Club. This third-person narrative is a much-needed departure from my recent reads. It opens with the suspense of Mark Fraser falling to his death immediately after a performance by the Reykjavik Symphony at Edinburgh's Usher Hall. Friends and family have repeatedly cautioned and reprimanded protagonist Isabel Dalhousie about sticking her nose in other peoples' business. But she attended this performance; and because she and Mark shared eye contact during his descent, she feels morally obligated to find out if his fall was accidental or intentional—on his or someone else's part. As a result of her background in philosophy, Isabel contemplates "moral obligation" throughout her investigation.Between her responsibilities as editor of a philosophical journal entitled Review of Applied Ethics, hanging-out with her niece, Cat; consulting her opinionated housekeeper, Grace; and recruiting Cat's ex, Jamie, as her sleuthing partner, Isabel provides a multi-faceted backdrop to the story. The plot thickens as Isabel learns where Mark was employed and ultimately contacts his flatmates, Henrietta and Neil. Cozy mystery fans will enjoy The Sunday Philosophy Club for the protagonist's accounts of the lengths she goes to in solving the case. And for readers interested in financial investing, speculation about insider trading will activate your imagination throughout this initial installment of a very promising series.
    • 2/5
      I didn't much care for this. The background color consists of discussions of the architecture, music and art of Scotland, matters of very little interest to me, while the philosophizing was a little too much "everyday common sense congratulating itself for being so much more sensible than ivory tower nonsense", the same sort of blather one hears from people who ramble on about how awful modern art is.