The Careful Use of Compliments - Softcover

Alexander McCall Smith

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0349139431 ISBN 13: 9780349139432

Publisher: Abacus, 2013

Synopsis

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, fourteen 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.

About this title

Review

A Message from Author Alexander McCall Smith

Three great places to visit in Scotland:

The Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh
This gallery, housed in an extraordinary red sandstone building topped with spikes and twirls, contains a pictorial record of Scots over the ages--the handsome, the deluded, the unfortunate, the inventive--they’re all there.

Falkland Palace
A lovely little palace in lush countryside, where the father of Mary Queen of Scots turned his face to the wall and predicted the end of the Stuart dynasty.

The Isle of Muck
You reach this charming little island on a tiny boat. There is nothing to do on the island but to contemplate its beauty--and its name.

Note to readers:
I would like to thank you for all your support. If it weren’t for the encouragement this has given me, my long conversation with Mma Ramotswe would have ended far earlier. As it is, I feel that we still have quite a bit to hear from her – as we do, too, from Isabel Dalhousie, heroine of my Edinburgh novels, and all the denizens of 44 Scotland Street. Each of these series will have a new novel written this year, and I am also planning to revisit the three German professors of the Portuguese Irregular verbs series. I was in the United States in the spring this year and will return in the Fall. These visits give me the chance to meet many readers of these books, so if we have not yet met, perhaps we shall do so before too long. And if we do, please do not hesitate to give me your views on what should happen to the characters in the future: all (reasonable) suggestions gratefully accepted!

--Alexander McCall Smith

About the Author

Following a distinguished career as a Professor of Medical Law, Alexander McCall Smith has turned to writing full-time. He is the author of over sixty books on a wide array of subjects, and his books have been translated intoforty-two languages. He lives in Edinburgh with his wife.

About this edition

• Publisher: Abacus
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0349139431
• ISBN 13: 9780349139432
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256