Friends, Lovers, Chocolate cover art

Friends, Lovers, Chocolate

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Friends, Lovers, Chocolate

By: Alexander McCall Smith
Narrated by: Phyllis Logan
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

 Winner of the British Book Awards, Author of the Year, 2004.
Winner of the CWA Dagger in the Library Award, 2004.

In this second novel in the Sunday Philosophy Club, Isabel Dalhousie's niece, Cat (she of the unsuitable boyfriends) is invited to a wedding in Italy. This means that Isabel is left in charge of Cat's delicatessen: a task to which the redoubtable moral philosopher proves more than equal. She is intrigued by the customers, of course, given her irrepressible tendency to take an interest in the business of others, and one man in particular attracts her attention. He is recovering from heart surgery - a heart transplant, in fact, and when Isabel gets to know him a bit better he reveals an extraordinary aspect of being the recipient of another's heart.

Isabel is drawn into an investigation of the facts behind the transplant, with disturbing results. Her enquiries take time, but not so much time as to prevent romantic entanglements, both for Isabel and her housekeeper, Grace. And as for chocolate: that proves to have some very interesting philosophical ramifications, at least in the mind of Isabel Dalhousie. Chocolate is a moral problem, invoking questions of temptation and, of course, human weakness. We are all weak when it comes to chocolate, Isabel decides. Should we just accept the fact and get on with it?

©2005 Alexander McCall Smith; (P)2005 Time Warner AudioBooks Mystery Traditional Detectives Women Sleuths Women's Fiction Fiction Detective Heartfelt Cats

Listeners also enjoyed...

 44 Scotland Street: The Complete Series 1-5 cover art
The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency cover art
Brought to Book cover art
The Stratton Story cover art
Barbara Pym: A BBC Radio Drama Collection cover art
One Summer Sunrise cover art
Under the Hammer cover art
Maisie Dobbs cover art
Death at the Auction cover art
Paradise Postponed cover art
Talking It Over cover art
Under a Italian Sky cover art

Critic reviews

"Isabel Dalhousie's charm is undeniable." ( Sunday Times)
"The Sunday Philosophy Club is vintage McCall Smith, written with a characteristic twinkle in his eye and the graceful clarity of an aesthetically attuned lawyer....sets up Isabel Dalhousie as Edinburgh's latest, and most engaging investigator." ( The Herald)
All stars
Most relevant

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I have started on this series having read all the Ladies Detective books and almost all the Scotland Street. This book did not disappoint and I have immediately bought the next episode. Isabel Dalhousie is a great character and I'm looking forward to hearing her development. By far the best thing about this book though is the narration by Phyllis Logas (Mrs Hughes in Downton Abbey) who has such a beautiful lilting reading voice. I hope she is narrating some of the others too. I would therefore recommend it to anyone.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Friends, Lovers, Chocolate?

Isabel meeting the donor's mother.

Which character – as performed by Phyllis Logan – was your favourite?

Isabel Dalhousie

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Again, the mothers describing the loss of their sons.

Any additional comments?

As with the Scotland Street books, Edinburgh is an additional character,

Great story, beautifully read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I’m a fan of this author who consistently provides us with a haven of good story telling without the blood guts and gore of the detective genre or the duplicitous sex. This is yet another delightful amble round Edinburgh with the philosophical Isobel solving a mystery of meaning . The best of humanity, get it here.

Charming easy read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.