The Comforts of a Muddy Saturday: An Isabel Dalhousie Novel (Random House Large Print (Cloth/Paper))

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
In the fabulous new installment in the best-selling adventures of Isabel Dalhousie, Isabel is asked to help a doctor who has been disgraced by allegations of scientific fraud concerning a newly marketed drug. Our ever-curious moral philosopher finds her interest piqued. Would a doctor with a stellar reputation make such a simple but grave mistake? If not, what explains the tragic accident that resulted in the death of a patient? Clearly, an investigation is in order, especially since a man's reputation is in jeopardy. Could he be the victim of someone else's mistake? Or perhaps he has been willfully deceived by a pharmaceutical company with a great deal to gain.

Not every problem prompts an investigation (take, for example, her ongoing struggle with her housekeeper, Grace, over the care of Isabel's infant son, Charlie), but, as we've seen, whatever the case, whatever the solution, Isabel's combination of spirit, smarts, empathy, and unabashed nosiness guarantees a delightful adventure.

From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews: Read 12 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

A good book for a rainy day September 27, 2008
16 out of 18 found this review helpful

I love Smith's Isabel Dalhousie series. From the very first book, The Sunday Philosophy Club, reading them is like entering a special world. His settings and characterizations are nearly flawless, and the human touch, the joys and sorrows of life, are handled beautifully. After reading this latest book, filled with bits of poetry and music, intelligent ideas and musings of the human heart, I felt that if I ever had to chose a few dozen books as favorites, this one and the four that preceded it would be among them.

3 out of 5 stars

Disappointed In Isabel a bit October 15, 2008
9 out of 10 found this review helpful

I've always liked Isabel Dalhousie. In the beginning of the series, she is everything she is now except one: she wasn't insecure. Even getting together with Jamie, she took charge. It was great to read. I love strong women.

However, the last book and this one, she has degenerated into a really insecure person. And her infatuation with Jamie is a bit disturbing. Very little is written about his good heart, but every few pages we get a description of how good-looking he is, of how he is hers, and how proud she is of his good looks and flat belly, and on and on an on. It got really irritating.

And sadly, her son, seems to be incidental. There are no description of strong feelings for him. It's a tepid relationship at best. Jamie is the obsession. Again, disturbing.

That and the sad lack of plot. What the heck is with Nick? I'll still keep reading though. I love McCall Smith's novels.

5 out of 5 stars

A Good Read, with Reservations September 28, 2008
8 out of 11 found this review helpful

I enjoy the Isabel Dalhousie series, and this book is no exception. Well, not really. McCall Smith is an expert in introducing promising subplots that never really go anywhere. He did it again in this book. I believe "....Muddy Saturday" would have been even better if at least one of the subplot (the one involving the character Nick Smart) had been taken further. Clearly, McCall Smith's intent is to continue the stories of the three or four major characters. As always, that's his stong point, and he come through ten fold. That's why I gave this book five stars. But, I wish McCall Smith would take more chances in the next Dalhousie novel.

5 out of 5 stars

A good book for any kind of day September 29, 2008
7 out of 10 found this review helpful

This is a fabulous book for any kind of day, as are all McCall Smith's novels - and readers in the USA might want to know that you can read his new online novel at www.telegraph.co.uk and read a new chapter every day. How many authors have the extraordinary breadth of a McCall Smith - Botswana lady detectives, Edinburgh lady philosophers, hilariously funny stories of German academics and people in an Edinburgh house, and now a wonderful online novel of people living in a socially mixed part of London. Ten cheers for McCall Smith, the Charles Dickens of our time. Christopher Catherwood (author of A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE EAST)

3 out of 5 stars

Not my favorite October 2, 2008
7 out of 10 found this review helpful

Alexander McCall Smith is one of my favorite authors. This book, though, is a little heavy on the philosophical musings and a little light on plot. I have always liked the main character, Isabel, the editor of a publication titled "Review of Applied Ethics" because she is a cerebral person; because she raises and attempts to answer an assortment of ethical, historical, and philosophical questions; and because she is an independent sort. But there are so many "asides" here - so many quips and quotes and intellectual musings, that they become a distraction and disrupt the flow of the story.

As one of the reviewers said, McCall Smith's books are addictive. I haven't given up reading his books. Just not a big fan of this one.

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