Isabel Dalhousie's World Trivia Quiz

Answer: America

Isabel's mother's name was Hibby, and she was from Mobile, Alabama. She met Isabel's father when he was studying at Columbia Law School in New York. In "The Right Attitude to Rain" Hibby's cousin and her husband come to Scotland for a visit and stay with Isabel. She learns more about her mother than perhaps she wanted to know.

Answer: Her brother's daughter

We learn from "The Careful Use of Compliments" that Isabel and her brother are estranged. I must admit that up to that point I'd thought he was dead.

Answer: The Review of Applied Ethics

It's described as a part-time job, but it sounds as if the work piles up alarmingly if Isabel doesn't keep at it. There are dastardly moves afoot in "The Careful Use of Compliments" to appoint a new editor.

Answer: The bassoon

He teaches the bassoon, plays in orchestras and accompanies concert artists. Isabel is very upset in "Friends, Lovers, Chocolate" when she sees him with a very affectionate woman during the interval at a concert, even though at this point Jamie is supposed to be just her niece Cat's ex-boyfriend who Isabel has kept on as a friend in the hope that Jamie and Cat will get back together again.

Answer: Cambridge

She met her ex-husband, John Liamor, there. She was an undergraduate and he was a post graduate.

Answer: Ireland

As far as Isabel knows, he now lives in Southern California. She divorced him after he had had numerous affairs.

Answer: A delicatessen

In "Friends, Lovers, Chocolate" Isabel worked there while Cat was on holiday in Italy for a friend's wedding. There are a few tables in the delicatessen where customers can have coffee and light meals. It was there that Isabel met Ian, who asks her to look into whether the face he keeps seeing belongs to someone who killed the previous owner of his transplanted heart.

Answer: Isabel's housekeeper

Grace started off working for Isabel's father. He made Isabel promise to look after Grace after his death, so she kept her on as housekeeper. In "The Right Attitude to Rain" Isabel buys Grace a flat. Grace wants to pay rent for it, but it's not clear whether she actually does.

Answer: Eddie

Eddie is very shy and easily upset. Cat doesn't like to leave him alone in the delicatessen for too long. He suffered from some unspecified trauma in his past. Cat knows about it, but has kept it confidential so Isabel and we don't know what it is.

Answer: Brother Fox

There is also a vixen and some cubs. Much to Grace's disdain, Isabel likes to speculate on the nature of Brother Fox's consciousness and thoughts. When Cat leaves a present of some produce from the delicatessen on Isabel's doorstep as a peace offering at the end of "The Right Attitude to Rain", it is Brother Fox who gets the benefit.