A valuable painting has been stolen
from Munrowe House. Duncan Munrowe, the owner, asks for Isabels help,
not to solve the mystery, but to be supportive and give him someone
to talk to. In this book, Isabel goes about her daily life; taking
care of Charlie, her son; listening to concerts by her musician
husband, Jaime; worrying about what Grace, Charlie's sitter is
teaching him; and helping Cal, her cousin, in the deli. During each
of these activities she ponders the philosophical implications of
people's actions.
The book is a very gentle read,
unfortunately it can become rather boring unless you're riveted by
Isabel's daily life. I thought the whole book was uncommonly like
Isabel's thoughts on page 59, “It would be fascinating to have some
sort of printout of the thoughts of other people – a
stream-of-consciousness report. It would read, she suspected, like a
badly constructed novel, by an author who had no sense of the flow of
narrative.” I have to admit that at times this quote struck me as
perfect for the book. The mystery was the interesting incident that
kept me reading, but there was very little about it other than
Isabel's thoughts about the characters and discussions with Duncan.
I recommend this book if you like the
Scottish setting. It's done very well with many passages describing
the beauty of the area. However, if you're looking for a serious
mystery, or even a good cozy, this isn't it.
I reviewed this book for the Amazon
Vine Program.
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