The Careful Use of Compliments

The Careful Use of Compliments (2007) is the fourth mystery novel in the Isabel Dalhousie series, following The Right Attitude to Rain. In the previous volume, Isabel Dalhousie found a lover and broke up an engagement. She also became pregnant. In this novel, Andrew McInnes was a painter who lived and died on the island of Jura. Isabel has a McInnes painting along her stairway. Then she sees an offering of a larger piece on the same subject and goes to view it at the auction house. Guy Peploe is a friend of Isabel and the co-owner of an art gallery. She had seen him at the auction and later he calls her with news of another McInnes painting that he has recently acquired. Isabel goes to view it and believes it to be a McInnes work. Professor Lettuce -- chairman of editorial board for the Review of Applied Ethics -- writes a letter to Isabel stating that she is being replaced by Christopher Dove at the end of the year. He first mentions the increase in subscriptions under her purview as the editor of the Review and finishes with a hand-written note about the recent death of a reviewer. Isabel decides Lettuce is feeling rather guilty about his contributions to this putsch. Christopher Dove comes to visit Isabel to discuss the transition. While he is there, her niece Cat comes to return the sweater that Isabel had left at her flat. Dove and Cat have a very friendly conversation and Dove stays over the weekend. In this story, Isabel decides to bid on the first painting, but something about it puzzles her. She allows herself to be outbid by a neighbor, Walter Buie. She also has some questions about the second painting. Isabel travels to Jura -- where McInnes had died eight years before -- and visits Barnhill, the house where George Orwell wrote 1984. There she finds something that convinces her that the paintings were done by someone other than McInnes. She passes her findings on to Guy and he agrees to check on the matter. Cat is having problems with jealousy about Isabel and Jamie. She insists that Isabel stole Jamie from her, but Isabel knows that Cat had already rejected Jamie despite his efforts to return to her good graces. Isabel cannot seem to talk to Cat without fanning the flames. This tale is mostly about personal relationships and the moral obligations that those incur. Isabel wonders about moral impartialism; could anyone be completely even-handed in their actions and should they be? She firmly believes in social justice, but is also uncertain whether the government can provide it. Everything she does seemingly provokes her moral senses. Isabel has been told often that she thinks too much. Enjoy! Highly recommended for McCall Smith fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of Scottish society, ethical problems, and a middle-aged mother. -Bill Jordin

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

Alexander McCall Smith has an amazing knack for capturing characters, their speech and mood and carrying consistently their personalities from book to book. Once again, we meet Isabel Dalhousie, a bit out of her element but never once slipping from the person we have known (and loved) in the past. The mood of Edinburgh, the streets and travels in the Scottish countryside are all captured brilliantly (again) in this book. The characters are like old friends (and in some cases, old annoyances). The only problem with a book by Alexander McCall Smith is that it is finished too quickly and you have to wait until the next one! Write faster please!

This book is quite the page-turner. The story focuses on a few main points: Isabel as a mother, Cat and Isabel's strained relationship, a painting which appears a fraud, and Isabel's editorial position which has always seemed a certainty and now suddenly disappears. Everything seems finely meshed together in this story--with change being the overall theme. How we react to and recover from major changes in our lives...this is what Isabel does--react and recover. The relationship that Isabel has with Jamie seems perfectly portrayed here as one in which neither person says exactly what they mean or truly trusts the other fully enough to be honest in a situation where there is a question as to why one remains. Their conversations go from seemingly flowing to almost painful, especially when their discussion involves Cat. This book is fascinating and the author really does a fine job of fleshing out this character. She questions everything...herself, the life she has chosen, big debates and little moments of pondering...Isabel is ever the philosopher and just when I think I fully understand her she does something that amazes me and explains it all away until I see all sides to every issue brought up. That's the wonder of these books. There is never a clear cut black and white issue. We may be on one side or another but everything is weighed and weighted...it's really extraordinary and as always a fascinating read!

The Careful Use of Compliments by Alexander Mccall Smith is the most recent entry in the Isabel Dalhousie mystery series. Isabel's son, Charlie, by her friend/lover Jamie has been born and has brought about many changes to her household. Cat, Isabel's niece and Jamie's former girlfriend, has given the new family the cold shoulder, especially Charlie. Jamie and Isabel take a weekend trip to northern Scotland, and Isabel discovers a mystery in two paintings recently come to auction by a deceased artist. She also loses her job as editor of a small philosophy journal, and with all of these changes in her life finds herself on shifting ground. Smith seems to be regarding the transiency of life in this delightful novel. Isabel is lost in love with her new son and finds herself contemplating how quickly life passes. As always, she debates moral arguments of all sorts in her mind and tries to practice being the best person she can. She brings up interesting questions about the responsibility of those with great wealth and how they should be taxed. I really love reading Smith's works. They engage the mind and soul with realistic characters facing everyday problems and struggling to make their little corner of the world a better place. Isabel could easily be accused of being a nosy busybody, but her every act is taken with great thought and in love.