Not McCall Smith's best

Would you try another book from Alexander McCall Smith and/or Phyllis Logan?

I'm a big Audio-book fan of Alexander McCall Smith (love the Corduroy Mansions series in particular) but this one is far from his best work. The central character -Isabel Dalhousie- becomes annoying after a while, falling into the McCall Smith cliches; just too comfortably smug middle class Edinburgh, with a mystery tied up too conveniently in a neat bow at the end.

Would you ever listen to anything by Alexander McCall Smith again?

Yes absolutely, I would listen to the Corduroy Mansions series again rather than the Isabel Dalhousie series though...ANY day!

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

Nothing, Phyllis Logan's reading is the best thing about this book, she has a very pleasing

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Sunday Philosophy Club?

I would cut all of the moral philosophising monologues, I found them rather laboured.

Any additional comments?

Not recommended

Slow food for the brain

This is a really gorgeous audible book, reveling in WH Auden and the great philosophers, with a gentle mystery to keep it moving along. The pace of this book could be described as unhurried, and I would not recommend it to listeners who only like their fiction at a cracking pace. The narration suited the pace, and I found the voicing of the different characters to be well pitched, enabling the distinction of the characters without sounding like overacting.

For me it was perfectly enjoyable for a rainy Saturday afternoon, stuck on the couch with the flu.