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    Friends, Lovers, Chocolate
    Friends, Lovers, Chocolate
    Friends, Lovers, Chocolate
    Audiobook8 hours

    Friends, Lovers, Chocolate

    Written by Alexander McCall Smith

    Narrated by Davina Porter

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    In this delightful second installment in Alexander McCall Smith's bestselling detective series, the irrepressibly curious Isabel Dalhousie gets caught up in a highly unusual affair of the heart. When Isabel is asked to cover for vacationing Cat at her delicatessen, Isabel meets a man with a most interesting problem. He recently had a heart transplant and is suddenly haunted by memories of events that never happened to him.The situation piques her insatiable curiosity: Could the memories be connected with the donor's demise? Naturally, Isabel's friend Jamie thinks it is none of Isabel's business. Meanwhile, Grace, Isabel's housekeeper, has become infatuated with a man at her spiritualist meeting, and Cat brings home an Italian lothario. That makes for some particularly tricky problems-both practical and philosophical-for Isabel to unravel in this enormously engaging and highly unusual mystery
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateSep 21, 2005
    ISBN9781436101103
    Friends, Lovers, Chocolate
    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 Friends, Lovers, Chocolate

    3.5/5

    31 ratings23 reviews

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    • 2/5
      I'm afraid I didn't care for this book. I had heard so much about Alexander McCall Smith and his best-selling No.1 Ladies' Detective agency, so I was excited about trying out one of his books. My tastes run to plot-driven stories. The characters in FLC were well drawn with real flaws and foibles, but no one (of the major) characters was much changed by the end of the story. A very minor mystery was solved but there was little tension built up and the resolution was anti-climactic. His delving into philosophic conundrums might appeal to many people, but not me. If this is a good sample of McCall's writing, I think I'll pass. I hope others enjoy it more than I did.
    • 4/5
      "How very Edinburgh."

      I read The Sunday Philosophy Club, the first book in this series, expecting to enjoy it, having received rave reviews of Alexander McCall Smith from friends, and found it very disappointing. A friend lent me this book in an emergency (involving keys locked in the car and needing a book to read while waiting for rescue) and I was surprised to find myself enjoying it thoroughly. Perhaps the change in my reaction is partly because I visited Edinburgh, albeit briefly, in the period between reading these books, but I think there's more to it than that.

      The plot is certainly meandering, but that's not a negative in my eyes. If you want and/or need an "A leads to B leads to C and therefore D" plot structure, you will likely find this book frustrating.

      Character-wise, I felt much more sympathetic toward Isabel than I did in the first book, where her black and white view of ethics and the world in general pissed me off - she shows a little more humanity here, although she does try very hard to suppress it!
    • 5/5
      Isabel Dalhousie is great as a philospher and an intromitter - "someone who gets involved." I really enjoy following her thoughts as she ferrets out intrigues that no one else sees, while at the same time self-questioning her every action and motive because she doesn't want to be a vitious intromitter, "who gets involved without good excuse." Isabel wants to be a better person; Alexander McCall Smith writes in an open and generous manner that invites the reader to want to be a better person, too.
    • 3/5
      I am a big fan of McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, but was disappointed when I began reading this newer series, starting with The Sunday Philosophy Club. I didn't find Isabel Dalhousie anywhere near as endearing as Mma Ramotswe, but I decided to press on and read Friends, Lovers, Chocolate to see if the series improved any.I enjoyed this book much more than the first in the series. Isabel seemed more likable and a bit funnier, whereas I had only found her strange and unnatural in the first book. I also found the mystery aspect of the book less disjointed and much more satisfying - but I still wouldn't really call these "mysteries."Isabel's relationship with Jamie seemed more believable, and we learn more about her age that helps here too - I had imagined her quite a bit older than she really is, but as I learn more about her I like reading about her meddlesome adventures more. I would recommend this to people who had only a so-so reaction to The Sunday Philosophy Club as it is definitely an improvement - and I'm hoping the third and fourth volumes will be even better. But if you really couldn't stand Miss Dalhousie and her ethical speculations, you're probably better off moving on.
    • 3/5
      Isabel Dalhousie is once again drawn into a moral predicament by chance and her own, very active conscience. She happens to meet Ian, a middle-aged former psychologist recovering from a heart transplant and suffering from episodes of intense misery accompanied by visions of a scarred man he's never met. Although skeptical of cell memory outside the brain, Isabel agrees to investigate who this scarred man might be and how he is related to Ian's new heart. More so than in the first Isabel novel, Smith weaves her moral mystery into Isabel's life, and we see how her investigations inform and are informed by her primary relationships with her niece Cat, her housekeeper Grace, and her young, male friend Jamie, Cat's ex-boyfriend. I particularly enjoyed Isabel's musings on the obligations of friendship. I'm getting rather attached to Isabel and hope she continues to ponder such important but overlooked topics in future novels.
    • 4/5
      Isabel helps with Cat's deli so she can go off to a wedding in Italy. Meanwhile, she meets a man who has had a recent heart transplant and has a troubling recurring vision. She does her usual philosophical pondering and considers running off with a handsome Italian man.
    • 4/5
      Isabel's niece Cat, is invited to a wedding so Isabel looks after her deli and meets a man who has had a heart transplant. He seems to be having dreams of the person who owned the heart so Isabel sets out to find the owner. She also has an interesting relationship with a younger man, Jamie.
    • 3/5
      The second of the Isabel Dalhousie mysteries is, loosely, about a man with a transplanted heart who believes that he’s having visions related to the death of his donor.I say loosely because this is a meandering novel that is more about what people make of coincidence than it is about solving a mystery, though the mystery is solved in a way that is consistent with the main character’s rational approach to life.Isabel Dalhousie is an independently weatlhy philosopher who edits an academic journal on applied ethics. She is a thinker and the novel is largely taken up with her thoughts on morality, history, and all the other questions that catch her fancy by chance as she wanders through her daily life. She is a decent woman, attractive enough, conscious of her age (early forties), intelligent, not immune to jealousy or unrequited love, but attempts to act well despite the power of those emotions. She is an interesting protagonist.I found the novel pleasant. I kept expecting a turn of events that would bring danger and menace to the story, but though there were hints it was possible, that never happened. Instead the story strolled through Isabel’s life, her thoughts, her struggle with her passions, not a great struggle but a quiet one.It was a good read for a couple of lazy days when I wanted to do very little but lie around and read. There were about half a dozen lines in the book that were beautiful–enough to show that Smith could write much better if he wished, though probably not as quickly. It’s a good enough book. It isn’t exquisite, it didn’t keep me on the edge of my seat. The structure is loose. I wouldn’t rush out to get the next in the series. But it was just right for the time and it would be good for the flu. I’m sure I’ll visit with Isabel another time.
    • 3/5
      Book on CD. Less enjoyable than his other series but ok to listen to. Isabel is not a very clever detective
    • 5/5
      Loved it! Isabel's mind is such an interesting place to spend some time.
    • 4/5
      These are mysteries without much mystery. His books are more about people and he is a great at creating rich, facinating characters.
    • 3/5
      The second book in this series of a relaxed, philosophic life in Edinburgh with the odd bit of amateur detective work thrown in. A nice gentle pace, with ample opportunity for the author to throw in philosophic asides. Nice stuff. Read November 2008
    • 4/5
      I love Alexander McCall Smith's writing, which is deceptively simple and easy to read but does deal with some profound truths. Isabel is a great character and I love her daily struggles to do the right thing.
    • 1/5
      This recording is defective. It jumps at one point in the middle, missing part of the book, and ends abruptly before the novel concludes.
    • 5/5
      An entertaining and witty book (as all McCall's books).
    • 4/5
      A cozy mystery set in Scotland. I like his series about the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency better, but this is worth the read.
    • 4/5
      This is a well-written mystery with developed characters. The only disappointment is that the mystery is not much of a mystery. I love the main character Isabel Dalhousie who is a philosopher who gets involved in the lives around her. When she meets a retired psychologist who shares the story of his heart transplant, she helps him find the donor's family who wished to remain anonymous. I have other observations that I'd like to make, but I fear that they would give away the plot so I'll just stop here!
    • 3/5
      The second book in this series i have read - not in order. It was only OK. I probably won't read any more in the series. It seems the only series I like from AMS is the No 1 ladies detective series I've read his other series and have not connected to them.
    • 4/5
      This is the first book I have read by this author and I can see why these series are so popular. There is little high adventure and no white knuckles but the story is diverting and literate and very easy to take.
    • 3/5
      I liked this better than "The Sunday Philosphy Club", probably because I realised from the start that it wasn't going to be a typical detective story with an ending that tied everything up neatly. But Isabel Dalhousie is still a very irritating protagonist!
    • 4/5
      The title of this book might just as well have been “”The Heart of the Matter,” but unfortunately that one was taken. But one can picture Isabel Dalhousie, the main protagonist, pondering: “well, but would it be unethical to use the title also if it were apt?” Isabel, editor of the “Review of Applied Ethics,” ponders everything. As this late-thirties-early-forties-ish attractive woman roams the streets of Edinburgh, we are privy to many of her thoughts and observations. Smith is a very pleasing writer, and Isabel is an entertaining companion.The “mystery” occupying Isabel isn’t much of one; I think of this book more as a way to spend a diverting day or two with lovely Scottish friends, rather than a nail-biting book you rocket through to solve the crime. Here we are dealing with matters of the heart: Isabel’s, her niece Cat’s, Cat’s ex-boyfriend Jamie’s, her housekeeper Grace’s, and Isabel’s new friend Ian’s. Ian has just had a heart transplant, and is suffering consequences that are perhaps mysterious, perhaps psychological. Isabel feels an ethical obligation to help him figure it out. The influence of the Scottish national poet Robert Burns has been deep in her life and in her culture, and thus she feels bound to her fellows: “a man’s a man, for a’ that.” But in all of these battles of the heart versus the brain, the characters confront the age-old dilemma: is it in fact “only with the heart that one can see rightly” (as per Antoine de Saint-Exupery) or should the brain be accorded hegemony?
    • 4/5
      Even better than the first one! Bring on more, Mr. McCall Smith!
    • 3/5
      I listened to this, and the woman who read it has an accent. I loved listening to it. It was also pretty interesting, could a heart transplant come with memories from the actual heart... and then some fluff too. Although you shouldn't take my word for it really, I would probably have liked anything if this woman read it to me.