Part of Isabel Dalhousie, book 2
First published 2006
Isabel Dalhousie agrees to manage her niece Cat's Edinburgh delicatessen while Cat attends an Italian wedding. At the shop, Isabel encounters a customer with an extraordinary dilemma. The man recently received a heart transplant and now experiences vivid memories of events he never lived through. Isabel wonders if these foreign memories belonged to his donor and whether they connect to that person's death. Her housekeeper Grace and friend Jamie warn her to stay out of it, but Isabel cannot resist the philosophical puzzle. Does the heart truly house the soul? Meanwhile, Cat returns from Italy with a charismatic new boyfriend who fits every stereotype of an Italian seducer. Isabel suspects he cannot be trusted, yet even she finds him undeniably appealing. As editor of the Review of Applied Ethics, Isabel applies her moral reasoning to both mysteries. She must determine whether the transplant patient's memories hold clues to a crime while protecting her niece from romantic disaster.
Genres: literary-fiction, mystery, contemporary, contemporary-romance
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: amateur-sleuth, found-family
Setting: Edinburgh, Italy
Period: 21st-century
261 pages · Hardcover · Pantheon