I just finished the latest Isabel Dalhousie book by Alexander McCall Smith. The Uncommon Appeal of Clouds is full of his trademark charm. I so enjoy and relate to this author's fiction, yet I cut the pleasure short: I raced through it in half a day.
In each book, the inquisitive philosopher Isabel Dalhousie faces a moral or philosophical conundrum. In this volume, she encounters art theft -- well, actually art kidnapping might be a better term.
Isabel is shocked to learn that when a really valuable painting is stolen, certain shady lawyers can act as middlemen for the criminals. In exchange for the payment of a ransom, they arrange for the painting to be returned.
Between editing the Journal of Applied Philosophy and caring for her little son Charlie, our dear protagonist is kept busy; even so, she can be relied on to give in to the temptation to interfere.
Just as predictable is her devoted young husband Jamie, who has struggled to come to terms with Isabel's inability to refuse help when appealed to. Jamie has still not arrived at a state of complete equanimity about the fact that her wish to help causes his exasperating wife to court danger.
This latest Isabel Dalhousie novel has something special: a cameo appearance by a real historical character. She learns from the owner of the stolen work that Anthony Blunt, the ex-Cambridge spy who was also an art expert, was once called upon to confirm that the creator of a certain painting was actually created by Nicolas Poussin.
In the midst of the angst about the stolen art, Grace, Isabel's housekeeper of longstanding, gets in a snit and gives notice. The reason? When Isabel finds out that Grace has taken it upon herself to teach Charlie maths from a book, she mildly questions the wisdom of this for a child his age and states that she and Jamie must be consulted about such things.
Fortunately, Isabel's dilemmas are resolved in the end, which is one of the reasons it is so charming to read about her.
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