The Careful Use of Compliments

The Sunday Philosophy Club, Vol. 4

By: Alexander McCall Smith

Narrated by: Hilary Neville

For philosophically minded Isabel Dalhousie, editor of the Review of Applied Ethics, getting through life with a clear conscience requires careful thought. And with the arrival of baby Charlie, not to mention a passionate relationship with his father, Jamie, 14 years her junior, Isabel enters deeper and rougher waters.

Late motherhood is not the only challenge facing Isabel. Even as she negotiates a truce with her furious niece, Cat, and struggles for authority over her son with her formidable housekeeper, Grace, Isabel finds herself drawn into the story of a painter's mysterious death off the island of Jura. Perhaps most seriously of all, Isabel's professional existence and that of her beloved Review come under attack from the machiavellian and suspiciously handsome Professor Dove.

A master storyteller, whether debating ethics in Edinburgh or pursuing lady detectives in Africa, here Alexander McCall Smith is as witty and wise as his irresistibly spirited heroine.

©2007 Alexander McCall Smith; (P)2007 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"Emphasizing, as usual, ethical quiddities that most mysteries either ignore or take for granted, Smith produces another absorbing case in which Isabel doesn't so much detect as interfere in a quietly masterful way more frivolous sleuths can only envy." ( Kirkus Reviews)

I love Alexander McCall Smith’s books wonderful

I pretty much loved everything about this book, and the previous three books in series. Cant wait too listen to the next one.