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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN num: 9780375423017
ISBN number: 037542301X
Label: Pantheon
Manufacturer: Pantheon
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 256
Printing Date: August 07, 2007
Publishing house: Pantheon
Release Date: August 07, 2007
Sale Popularity Level: 12480
Studio: Pantheon
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Product Description:
Isabel Dalhousie is back, in the latest installment of this enchanting, already beloeved, best-selling series.
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.
Amazon.com:
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 blue 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
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Rated by buyers 
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This fourth novel in Alexander McCall Smith's The Sunday Philosophy Club series takes Isabel Dalhousie into new territory; since the last book she has become mother to infant Charlie and lover of the young musician Jamie, Charlie's father. Isabel is editor of "The Journal of Applied Ethics" and lives a quiet life in Edinburgh -- except when her pursuit of the morally right thing takes her deep into other people's business.
The early part of the book focuses on Isabel's unexpected ousting as editor, victim of a coup by a Londoner named Christopher Dove. Isabel, being independently wealthy, doesn't need the pittance she earns from the job but as usual she can't leave a wrong unrighted -- you may admire her swift and definitive method of dealing with the situation.
Like the other Dalhousie books, this one features a mystery though rather a little one. At an art auction Isabel bids on a painting by a Scottish landscape artist named McInnes who drowned eight years before. Something doesn't ring true about the painting and she sets off with Jamie and Charlie to the Inner Hebrides island of Jura where McInnes is said to have drowned. No thread is left untugged as Isabel unravels the truth. The secret behind the painting's provenance is just the kind of thing to fascinate Isabel, though for the reader the greater interest is watching her methods and meanderings.
Isabel is prone to quoting from her favorite poet -- Auden -- and making up punning crossword clues to keep calm when her housekeeper Grace is in full spate; she gives a lot of thought to right and wrong and doesn't seem capable of taking the easy option. Jamie and wee Charlie take some of her time and attention -- though less than we might reasonably expect. The story is planted firmly in her point of view.
The Careful Use of Compliments (Sunday Philosophy Club) has a charm that's hard to convey so you should read it for yourself. Isabel has a more distant feel than the much-loved Mma Precious Ramotswe of the Ladies Detective Agency series, but spending a couple of hours wandering the streets of Edinburgh with a moral philosopher is surprisingly entertaining.
Linda Bulger, 2008
Rated by buyers -
I love the wonderful stories by Alexander McCall Smith.
the Isabel Dalhousie series is especially delightful. Alexander McCall Smith expresses many insightful musings through Isabel's philosophical thought process and her "interference" spurred by her curiosity of human nature.
Rated by buyers -
The latest book in the "Sunday Philosophy Club" series takes a deeper look at protagonist Isabel Dalhousie as a person with intense attachments to her new baby and her musician lover but who is still struggling to approach life with the objectivity of a philosopher. Isabel finds that this is not always an easy act to balance. While some of the most enjoyable parts of this continuing story revolve around Isabel's personal life, author McCall-Smith has thrown in an interesting mystery (softcore) and a little intrigue that gives the book some snap and energy.
The reader can easily get the impression from this series and the Mma Ramotswe books, that McCall-Smith may be using the two female protagonists as alter egos to get at some basic ethical issues that bug him and plague most of human kind. Isabel Dalhousie's mulling of daily moral issues is the basic structure on which all else in the books hang. I find this enjoyable for the most part, though I can understand why other readers could see it as off the point at times.
Overall, this book and its predecessors are the purest form of mental comfort food. I feel great for days after reading these books and always look forward to the subsequent one in the series.
Rated by buyers -
In response to an earlier review, I didn't feel cheated by the absence of description about how Isabel carried and gave birth to Charlie. I don't think she's the kind of woman who gets into matters of motherhood the way most women do. She lives in her head and has to learn to live more in the physical world, which a baby will force her to do, sooner or later. The novel is fun, like the earlier ones, but not quite as well put together in my opinion. Toward the end I felt as if the author was in a hurry to get it finished. On the whole, I think his Ladies Detective Agency novels feel more polished. But I love them all.
Rated by buyers -
I'm always curious and somewhat puzzled....how does a man think he can write as if he were a woman? But, I have to say, Alexander McCall Smith makes it believable. His main character is in many ways genderless, and not totally feminine sounding, but the story is excellent, the writing style enjoyable to read, and I'm crazy about all things Scottish, so it was a pleasure. Having been in Edinburgh, it was fun to be able to feel I was walking along with the protagonist about the city. I think I'd like to read more in this series.
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