On The Shelf

Autumn8217;s almost here: The perfect time to catch up with three favourite detectives

The Lighthouse
By PD James
Adam Dalgliesh is back, as he heads for the privately owned Combe Island to investigate a murder with as much discretion as he and his team can summon. His team, to be sure, is going through a rough patch, and even after the developments in The Murder Room he is wracked by some questions to do with Emma Lavenham.

Rebus8217;s Scotland: A Personal Journey
By Ian Rankin,with Ross Gillespie and Tricia Malley
This is bound to be a memoir to treasure for all Inspector Rebus fans. It may also just become the guidebook of choice for discerning visitors to Scotland. Ian Rankin explores the making of his character and looks back at his own life, as he investigates the places that inspired his books. Also, Rankin8217;s The Flood, unavailable for more than a decade, is republished this month.

Friends, Lovers, Chocolate
By Alexander McCall Smith
Forty-something philosopher Isabel Dalhousie continues to arrange the moral dilemmas of good folks, as she offers to run her niece8217;s delicatessen and struggles to make sense of her own jealousy when a young friend acquires new attachments. But, most of all, what is she to make of her new psychoanalyst friend who has had a heart transplant and worries that there may be something to the idea of cellular memory, that he may have gained something of his donor8217;s self in the process?