Beginning ~ with a man in a tweed overcoat

Friends, Lovers, Chocolate (Isabel Dalhousie Mystery, Book 2) ~ by Alexander McCall Smith, 2005, mystery (Scotland), 272 pages

Beginning ===> The man in the brown Harris tweed overcoat — double-breasted with three small leather-covered buttons on the cuffs — made his way slowly along the street that led down the spine of Edinburgh.  He was aware of the seagulls which had drifted in from the shore and which were swooping down onto the cobblestones, picking up fragments dropped by somebody who had been careless with a fish.

The irrepressibly curious Isabel Dalhousie gets caught up in a highly unusual affair of the heart.  When Isabel is asked to cover for vacationing Cat at her delicatessen, Isabel meets a man with a most interesting problem.  He recently had a heart transplant and is suddenly haunted by memories of events that never happened to him.  The situation piques her insatiable curiosity:  Could the memories be connected with the donor’s demise?  Naturally, Isabel’s friend Jamie thinks it is none of Isabel’s business.

Meanwhile, Grace, Isabel’s housekeeper, has become infatuated with a man at her spiritualist meeting, and Cat brings home an Italian lothario.  That makes for some particularly tricky problems — both practical and philosophical — for Isabel to unravel in this enormously engaging and highly unusual mystery.

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