shy. Over the course of the series, he begins to open up to others. Brother Fox, an urban fox who lives in Isabel's garden. Peter and Susie Stevenson, two close friends of Isabel's. Robert Lettuce, an English philosopher who tried to have Isabel fired from the editorial position of the Review of Applied Ethics. As such, Isabel dislikes him greatly. Minor characters Mark, a man whose death at the theatre Isabel decides to investigate (The Sunday Philosophy Club) Toby, Cat's first unsuitable boyfriend, with a penchant for crushed-strawberry-coloured trousers (SPC) Ian, the recipient of a problematic heart transplant (Friends, Lovers, Chocolate) Tomasso, an Italian who woos Isabel (FLC) Rose Macleod and Graeme, a couple whose son has died (FLC) Mimi, Isabel's cousin from Dallas, and her husband Joe (The Right Attitude to Rain) Tom Bruce, a rich American who suffers from Bell's palsy, and his young beautiful fiancée Angie (RATR) Patrick, another of Cat's boyfriends, who is under his mother's thumb (RATR) Setting The Sunday Philosophy Club marked a departure from the gentle Botswana setting of McCall Smith's previous series: in an interview in May 2004, McCall Smith said, "I’m enjoying it immensely, writing about a different milieu." The series was set in Edinburgh because McCall Smith "wanted to write something about Scotland" and finds Edinburgh "a very interesting and intriguing city." The series tries to reflect the Edinburgh people, who are "vivid agreeable people just waiting to have a novel written about them." McCall Smith has lived in Edinburgh since 1984. Particular comparisons have been made between McCall's Edinburgh and the version of the city that appears in Ian Rankin’s books. McCall Smith notes that his books are "certainly a bit different from the very realistic fiction that comes from Edinburgh" but believes that both styles equally reflect the nature of Edinburgh and Scotland: "I would say that a city’s literary nature needn’t be carved in stone. One doesn’t need to accept that there is just one sort of literature or one formula for the Scottish novel." Style In comparison to The No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, the Sunday Philosophy Club series is "a little bit more tilted in the mystery direction." Nonetheless, it is a detective novel "only in a rather quirky, incidental way." More importantly, the series is character- rather than plot-driven. Time Out’s website describes the main character Isabel thus: "If you combine the nosey interfering