The Careful Use of Compliments: An Isabel Dalhousie Novel
by By McCall Smith, Alexander
Category: Fiction , Mystery & Detective , Women Sleuths

ISABEL DALHOUSIE - Book 4 Nothing captures the charm of Edinburgh like the bestselling Isabel Dalhousie series of novels featuring the insatiably curious philosopher and woman detective.  Whether investigating a case or a problem of philosophy, the indefatigable Isabel Dalhousie, one of fiction’s most richly developed amateur detectives, is always ready to pursue the answers to all of life’s questions, large and small. In addition to being the nosiest and most sypathetic philosopher  you are likely to meet, Isabel is now a mother.  Charlies, her newborn son, presents  her with a myriad wonders of a new life, and doting father Jamie presents her with  an intriguing proposal: marriage.  In the midst of all this, she receives a disturbing  letter announcing that she has been ousted as editor of the Review of Applied Ethics by the ambitious Professor Dove.  None of these things, however, in any way diminshes  Isabel's curiosity.  And when she attends an art auction, she finds an irresistable  puzzle: two paintings attributed to a now-deceased artist appear on the market at  the same time, and both of them exhibit some unusual characteristics.  Are these  paintings forgeries? This proves to be sufficient fodder for Isabel's inquisitiveness.   So she begins an investigation... and soon finds herself diverging from her philosophical  musings about fatherhood onto a path that leads her into the mysteries of the art  world and the soul of an artist.