The Unbearable Lightness of Scones - Alexander McCall Smith (Spoilers)

So I thought maybe in this book we had a glimmer of hope that Bertie would get some things that he wanted - and I suppose he kind of did - but for the most part, I think the author is deliberately toying with the readers now, by pulling the rug out from under. SIGH. There were a lot of strangely dropped plot elements in this book - Cyril's puppies get sold, and there seems to be some weirdness about that, but then it's just kind of dropped. Matthew gets saved from drowning by dolphins and no one believes him and then that gets dropped - I mean, he tells Big Lou, and she believes him, but other than that it's dropped. Bruce has some kind of change of heart and appears to become a better person overnight - will it last? Pat is absent, will she be back? I guess I will have to read the next book to see what's what!