Friends, Lovers, Chocolate A. J. Smith a young doctor visiting a

a young doctor visiting a patient in Acid Row

' THE SUNDAY TIMES

With the pulse of the city in its prose

Thomas Chaloner cannot understand why a man of known incompetence is put in charge of investigating the attack while he is diverted to make enquiries about the poisoning of birds in the King's aviary in St James's Park

I am tempted to dust off the old superlatives and event to employ some particularly vulgar clichs from the repertoire of publishers' blurbs

Friends, Lovers, Chocolate A. J. Smith a young doctor visiting aIsabel Dalhousie thinks often of friends, sometimes of lovers, and on occasion of chocolate. As an Edinburgh philosopher she is certain of where she stands. She can review a book called In Praise of Sin with panache and conviction, but real life is well, perhaps a bit more challenging particularly when it comes to her feelings for Jamie, a younger man who should have married her niece, Cat. Jamie's handsomeness leaves Isabel feeling distinctly uneasy,