Donald's Reviews > The Quiet Side of Passion

I do enjoy reading these, they are not as engaging as the Mma Ramotswe ones, altogether more genteel and insubstantial, but even so, he is stretching the bounds of credibility in the latest one. Isabel Dalhousie doesn't do much, edit a journal, help out in Cat's deli, and stick her nose into people's business, but even such leisurely pursuits seem to overwhelm her, and despite a housekeeper and a house husband, decides she needs more help, and promptly, and I mean almost instantly, hires not just an assistant to help with the boring bits of her journal but also an au pair! She then inserts herself into the life of a single mother, drops her, and in the process rips her life to pieces, but it's all fine because she helps out a poor man being manipulated by the single mother in the process. Everybody in genteel Morningside comes out on top though.
I've actually realised, writing this, that it's left a bit of a nasty taste... So I'm removing a star.