Isabel Dalhousie: "Comforts of a Muddy Saturday" Quiz

Answer: He looked like Jamie.

His resemblance to Jamie caused Isabel some embarrassment when she mistook him for Jamie in the lobby after the performance. Before the concert, Jamie had told her that he didn't care for the piece that Nick Smart had written, and after the concert, Isabel began to tell him that she agreed with him before she realized she was talking to Nick.

She quickly recovered and turned the comments into a compliment.

Answer: Christopher Dove

Christopher Dove had previously conspired with Professor Lettuce to replace Isabel as the editor of the "Review of Applied Ethics", and she kept her job by purchasing the journal. She received an article from him on the "Trolley Problem", which was a famous thought experiment in ethics: "a trolley car is careering out of control down a slope. Ahead of it on the line are five people who have been tied there by a mad philosopher. You, however, realise that by flicking a switch, you can divert the trolley onto a different track.

There is one person standing on that track. Do you flick the switch?" Christopher Dove had modified the problem slightly in his article but not sufficiently enough for the two reviewers to whom Isabel had forwarded the manuscript. Based on their recommendations, she shouldn't have published the article, but she told Dove she would do so.

Answer: Sri Lanka

Cat asked Isabel if she would work at the deli for ten days while Cat went to Sri Lanka with a friend. When she returned, she told Isabel that she had met a man there and had decided to move there, at least for a while, and she was going to hire someone to manage the deli while she was gone. However, the relationship soon ended, and Cat decided to stay in Edinburgh.

Answer: His wife, Stella

Dr. Marcus Moncrieff had been accused of negligence which resulted in the death of a patient. He had been working on a trial for a new medication and had given it a good review despite two incidents in which patients had developed side effects. He had indicated that the side effects had been caused by overdoses, not by the drug itself, but it was later discovered that the data had been falsified.

He was blamed since he hadn't revealed that he had a conflict of interest with the company producing the antibiotic; they had previously given him a research grant. Stella Moncrieff believed her husband was innocent, and she wanted Isabel to investigate the case.

Answer: Five hundred pounds

Isabel had invited Eddie to dinner as a peace offering after they had had a disagreement over Isabel giving away cheese at the deli. Eddie was surprised by the size of Isabel's house, and when he realized how wealthy she was, he asked her if she would give him five hundred pounds.

He initially wouldn't tell her why he asked for it, but he later told her it was to pay for surgery for his father. Isabel told him that the surgery would cost a lot more than that, and she offered to pay for it. He turned her down, which made her suspect that he had lied to her, but he later returned most of the money after his father had been scheduled for the surgery by the National Health Service.

Answer: Hypnotism

Isabel was very pleased to hear that Eddie was taking a course at night school, but she was surprised to hear that it was hypnotism. When he came to Isabel's house for dinner, he offered to put her under, which she declined, but Jamie said he wanted Eddie to try it on him. When Eddie did so, Jamie didn't go under, but Isabel did.

Answer: A painting of a fox

Isabel had stopped by the Scottish Gallery and was having tea with her friend Robin McClure, when Robin showed her a painting of a fox that he told her Jamie had bought for her. Besides being thrilled that the picture looked like Brother Fox, the fox that lived in Isabel's garden, Isabel was happy because it was the first present that Jamie had given her that wasn't for a birthday or Christmas.

Answer: A type of cheese

Isabel had been thinking about Aristotle and said his name out loud. Eddie heard her and said that he hadn't sold any himself. He asked if Cat had ordered it. Isabel didn't want to laugh at Eddie, so she told him she would check on it. She thought to herself that some people might not know who Aristotle was, "but there were not many who would think he was a cheese".

Answer: A lawyer

David McLean was a lawyer who represented the pharmaceutical company that had manufactured the drug tested by Dr. Marcus Moncrieff. He told Isabel that the firm did not want the case reopened and asked her to stop investigating it; he nearly threatened her.

The conversation with McLean made Isabel suspect that perhaps Dr. Moncrieff's nephew, Norrie, had been working with the pharmaceutical company to falsify the results of the drug trials.

Answer: He had falsified the results himself.

Isabel had met with Dr. Norrie Brown, who had been Dr. Marcus Moncrieff's assistant, and Norrie had told her that he had warned Marcus that the results of the tests weren't correct. When Isabel told this to Stella, Stella claimed that Norrie was framing Marcus because Norrie was bitter against his uncle. Isabel came to believe this was true, so she met with Marcus to tell him her suspicions.

He confessed that he had falsified the results himself because he believed the drug was safe and thought that the results were wrong.

He was so convinced that the drug was beneficial that he wanted to make sure it passed the trials. His melancholia had more to do with guilt than the charges against him.