Isabel Dalhousie: "Friends, Lovers, Chocolate" Quiz

Answer: Italy

Cat wanted to attend the wedding of a friend in Italy, and Isabel offered to fill in at the delicatessen while Cat was away. Isabel was concerned, however, that Cat's friend didn't know what business her fiancé was in; Isabel assumed it was the Mafia!

Answer: She was Isabel's age and was married.

When Jamie told Isabel that he was seeing someone, Isabel assumed it was the girl she had seen him with at the concert. She was shocked when he told her about Louise, and when Jamie brought Louise over to meet Isabel, Louise's attitude towards her irritated Isabel. So Isabel cattily asked Louise, "What does your husband do"?

Answer: Cellular memory

Ian was a psychologist and so he was skeptical on things that couldn't be explained by scientific evidence. However, ever since his heart transplant, Ian had been receiving occasional jolts of pain all over his body, followed by a vision of a face. He had read about cellular memory and was wondering if perhaps he was having a memory from the heart donor.

Answer: He was hit by a car.

The donor's family had wanted to remain anonymous, so Ian only knew that the heart had come from a young man. Isabel had looked in the newspapers for a young man who had died around the time of the transplant and had come up with Rory Macleod. He had been hit by a car while walking home, and the driver hadn't stopped to help.

Answer: A medium

Isabel had been speaking with Rory's mother, Rose, and was just about to tell her about Ian, when Graeme, Rose's partner, entered the room. He had a high, scarred brow and hooded eyes - just like the face that Ian had described. Isabel believed that Ian's vision was of the man who had hit Rory, so she didn't want to say anything about Ian.

She said the first thing that popped into her mind; she claimed to be a medium, and she had a vision of the man who killed Rory; he was short and chubby!

Answer: To tour Scotland with him

At dinner, Tomasso had told her he was planning to drive to Glencoe and that Cat couldn't accompany him. He then asked Isabel to join him for a week or so, and they could travel over to Skye and "much more". She initially told him she had to think about it, but she decided to accept by the time the first course arrived.

Answer: Isabel had told him that Cat wouldn't come back to him.

Isabel guessed that the reason Jamie turned down the job with the London Symphony was because he was still hoping for a reconciliation with Cat. Isabel knew that it wouldn't happen so she told Jamie not to put his life on hold. He became angry, told her to mind her own business and left.

Answer: Jamie

After Rose Macleod denied that her son's heart had been donated, Isabel had asked a reporter friend of hers to find out who the heart donor was, and he had replied "Macleod". Isabel believed that Rose had lied to her, but Jamie told her that he also had done some investigation, and he found out that the donor was actually a Gavin Macleod.

Answer: Ian had seen Euan before.

It turned out the Ian had convalesced in the same village where Euan lived. Ian had vague memories of his time there, and Isabel believed he either met Euan or had Euan pointed out to him during his visit. She thought he probably was told about Gavin's death by suicide and that subconsciously, Ian had linked Euan with the donated heart. Isabel believed that Ian was having the vision because he didn't have a chance to thank Gavin's family for the donation.

Another possibility, Isabel suggested, was that the vision had nothing to do with anyone, and the resemblance was purely coincidental.

Answer: She was pondering the moral issues raised by chocolate.

Isabel had noted that chocolate was a test between temptation and self-control. Ian had told Isabel that he had to avoid chocolate on his new diet, and a shoplifter at the deli ate some chocolate before running off with a jar of artichoke hearts. The shoplifter had given into temptation while Ian was managing self-control.

After a discussion with Grace about the ethics of buffet bars, Isabel thought about devoting a volume of the "Review of Applied Ethics" to the moral issues of food, with at least one paper on chocolate!