The Right Attitude to Rain by Alexander McCall Smith

This is the third book in the Isabel Dalhousie series of mysteries, following on from Friends, Lovers, Chocolate.

The key to contentment in the Scottish climate is the right attitude to rain - just as in life the key to happiness lies in making the best of what you have. Bruised in love by her faithless Irish husband, Isabel Dalhousie is a connoisseur of intimate moral issues: she edits a philosophical journal and spends a great deal of her time considering how to improve the lives of those around her. There is her housekeeper Grace, whose future she must secure; her niece Cat, who is embarking on a new relationship with a dubious workaholic mummy's boy; and even an American couple newly arrived in Edinburgh on a tour. And then there is Jamie, Cat's ex-boyfriend, a handsome, gifted musician fourteen years Isabel's junior, with whom she is slowly and hopelessly falling in love. Intensely thoughtful and consistently entertaining, THE RIGHT ATTITUDE TO RAIN is shot through with compassion and unassuming intelligence.

In my review for Friends, Lovers, Chocolate I talked a bit how I was a bit underwhelmed by this series, particularly the first book, but I think I have caught onto it's tone and pace now. This one was quite enjoyable!

I'm sure that I have mentioned here before that I am the kind of person who will read a couple of pages in a book and then turn to the end of the book and read the last page or so, and then go back to the front and keep reading. I can only think of two books in recent times where I have really seen a huge spoiler that changed my reading experience. The first time it happened was when I read My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. The second time was this book! I read the last page and a half, and something so surprising happened that I had to quickly skim through the book to find all the parts relating to that event, and then once I knew what led to that, I could then go back and read the book properly.

Once again, there isn't really a mystery in this book, or at least there isn't a body with an unknown killer. There is a possibility of a murder in the future that Isabel concerns herself with, but in the most part this book is about Isabel, and the perceptions others may or do have of her as a result of a decision she makes about her love life. Given the huge development at the end of this book, I cannot wait to read the next Isabel Dalhousie novel. Now that's a sentence I didn't really ever expect to write!! LOL!

A comment about the cover that was on my book - as seen above! How horrible is it! To me it doesn't feel as though it fits with the feeling or style of the book at all. Or maybe it is because this cover is completely different to the covers I have had on the first two instalments in this series that were much more in keeping with the tone of the books. I much prefer the US cover of the book.

Rating 4/5