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    The Careful Use of Compliments
    The Careful Use of Compliments
    The Careful Use of Compliments
    Audiobook8 hours

    The Careful Use of Compliments

    Written by Alexander McCall Smith

    Narrated by Davina Porter

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    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 the fourth installment of this enchanting, beloved series, Isabel Dalhousie, who is now a mother, returns to investigate an irresistible puzzle in the art world. Isabel Dalhousie-the nosiest and most sympathetic philosopher you are likely to meet-now has a son, Charlie, whose doting father Jamie has an intriguing idea to pose to Isabel: marriage. But Isabel wonders if Jamie is too young to be serious? And how would Cat respond? On top of these matters, the ambitious Professor Dove has seized Isabel's position as editor of the Review of Applied Ethics. However, nothing it seems can diminish Isabel's innate curiosity. And when she recognizes that two paintings attributed to a deceased artist have simultaneously appeared on the market, she can't help but think that they're forgeries. So Isabel begins an investigation and soon finds herself diverted from her musings about parenthood and onto a path of inquiry into the soul of an artist.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateFeb 4, 2008
    ISBN9781428193727
    The Careful Use of Compliments
    Author

    Alexander McCall Smith

    Alexander McCall Smith is the author of the award-winning series The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency, and he now devotes his time to the writing of fiction, including the 44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie series. He is the author of over eighty books on a wide array of subjects, and his work has been translated into forty-six languages. Before becoming a full-time writer he was for many years Professor of Medical Law at Edinburgh.

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    Reviews for The Careful Use of Compliments

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    32 ratings23 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Isabel Dalhousie is a singular heroine ... and it's a joy to get inside her head. With a PhD in philosophy and a finely tuned sense of what's right and wrong, her musings provide many a meditation for readers. But it would be erroneous to believe that these lovely novels are anything but great storytelling. It's just that the stories generally revolve around small things. In The Careful Use of Compliments, Isabel attends an auction at which she plans to bid on a painting by the dead artist Andrew McInnes -- she already owns one of his painting. But at the last minute, Isabel stops bidding. Not that money is a worry -- she has inherited wealth, more money than she could spend in several lifetimes. No, she has an uneasy feeling about it. When another painting by the same author comes up for sale, she's pretty sure both are forgeries. What to do? It's a long, hard slog for her to figure out what she should do about with her suspicions. After all, she's the editor of the Review of Applied Ethics and has spent many hours pondering moral questions. When she becomes the victim of two conniving fellow-philosophers, Professors Lettuce and Dove, and loses her position as editor, she has some further thinking about how to proceed. File a lawsuit for wrongful termination? Let it pass? Or get sweet revenge somehow? I love this series ... and The Careful Use of Compliments .didn't disappoint. Again, I'm amazed at how Mr. Smith manages to get into the heads of his women characters. Strongly recommended01/16/2010

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      This book is yet another score for McCall Smith. Smith is that rare male author who obviously likes women and writes them extremely well. Isabel Dalhousie is a fully realized, complicated female character who is unique. She is kind, smart, highly moral, and in love with a much younger man who used to be her neice's boyfriend. Oh, and she just had his baby. In this outing Isabel solves the mystery of a painting that may or may not be a fake, tries to fix her relationship with her neice, engages in a bit of intrigue to keep her job, and contemplates what it is to love her boyfriend and her son. The Isabel Dalhousie series of books are all thoughtful, gentle, well-written, and very understanding of the human condition. Smith has a wholy unique voice that is both comforting and thought provoking. These novels, much like his other popular series, are almost entirely character driven and this book is no exception. There is some plot, but it is mostly used to drive the relationships forward and offer insights into the characters and their motivations. In the wrong hands, this kind of writing can be boring and pretentious. But Smith knows exactly what he's doing and because he is such a keen observer of human nature and has such a beautiful way with words his novels are really mini works of art. This book, and all of his other books, are well worth reading.
    • 3/5
      This was my first book by McCall Smith. It was very low key and highbrow (characters) at the same time. I felt as if I had walked into the middle of a movie. Apparently this is one series that you need to read from A - Z. I didn't think it was too bad, although I found the leading characters' cowtowing ways to her partner demeaning. Hell, she was a Dr. yet she lacked personal self esteem. Oh well, maybe that was her one character flaw...
    • 3/5
      Irresistible for Dalhousie fans; hard to say that the destinatio is important but the journey is, as always with Macall Smith in Edinborough, charming leisurely (and a bit smug). The move where Dalhousie gets back at her tormentors, is almost as satisfying as the appearance by Marshall Macluhan that ends Woody Allen's argument iwhile waaiting outsid.e the cinema
    • 4/5
      A continuation of Isabel's interesting life. These characters are very real and appealing, despite the fact that most people do not take Isabel's moral high ground.
    • 2/5
      This is the third (or 4th?) book about Isabel Dalhousie, 40ish Scottish editor of an ethics journal. Everytime I read one of these books, all I think is the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series is so much better. Anyway, the mystery of forged works of art was rather boring and I found some of Isabel's decisions quite unethical. The only part of the book I enjoyed was the tension between Isabel and her niece, Cat, over Isabel's current love and her baby's daddy, Jamie, who happens to be Cat's ex-boyfriend.
    • 4/5
      This is the latest in the Sunday Philosophy Club series by Alexander McCall Smith. The author is best known for his No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, which is good. But, if you haven't yet read anything else by this author, you are in for a treat. I look forward to each new book in this series with anticipation. It is classified as a mystery, but the mystery is really secondary. What stands out is the language, setting, and the main character, Isabel Dalhousie. In fact, I find myself wanting to read this book aloud because the author's descriptions are so vivid. I have never been to Scotland, but I will go some day, and these books just whet my appetite. Isabel Dalhousie is a moral philosopher and the editor of the Review of Applied Ethics. McCall Smith has a wonderfully dry wit that comes through in all his novels. Isabel is a very well-rounded character, and the reader gets to know her intimately through her interior monologues. She thinks about even the smallest things that happen during her day. She debates with herself the morality of inaction versus taking specific action. But, where some characters may come across as judgmental or "preachy", Isabel does neither. She is very human and readily admits her faults. At heart, she is an optimist. This book and all the rest of the books in this series are a pleasure to read.
    • 3/5
      Formulaic? Yes. Predictable? Yes. A good read? Absolutely! Read April 2010.
    • 4/5
      This is the fourth book in 'The Sunday Philosophy Club' series which is, for some reason beyond me, not as popular as his other books. The series is centred around Isabel Dalhousie, Edinburgh resident and editor of the 'Review of Applied Ethics' as she struggles with the ethical and moral dilemmas that life throws at her. I know that McCall Smith is a prolific writer, but I can assure you that he's no Barbara Cartland, his writing is deceptively gentle but, as he is lawyer and philosopher, his writing is far from superficial.
    • 3/5
      A light hearted tale of a femal philosopher who uses her moral delimmas to solves mysteries. She is a wealthy, young, single mother who enjoys her Scottish homeland.
    • 3/5
      mystery is a very small part of this series but isabel is an interesting character.
    • 4/5
      Another great book in the Isabel Dalhousie series. My favorite part is the little bit of revenge Isabel gets when she uses her considerable wealth to prove a point. The reason it works is because we know that Isabel doesn't flaunt her wealth.
    • 5/5
      With this installment the Isabel Dalhousie series completes its transition from detective fiction to mainstream social observational novels. There is some mystery as the academic Isabel interferes in the probable suicide of an artist but much more of the book explores the novelty of late motherhood, the effects of envy, and the value of money. All this is achieved with a warm witty gentleness; a great affection for human fraility.
    • 3/5
      I'm not sure how Isabel Dalhousie manages to become more irritating with every book, but somehow she manages it.In this book she is the most unrealistic new mother ever - completely unfrazzled and apparently getting plenty of sleep.
    • 4/5
      This is the fourth Isabel Dalhousie novel, as I am pleased to note Pantheon is now marketing them, not mysteries. Now I wonder why my library still keeps them in the mysteries...?It's a lovely, warm way to spend a frustrating day's end, reading a well-written book about quiet, domestic things, and feeling thereby that one has checked in on the doings of some rather remote, but nonetheless cherished, friends. That's the charm of the Isabel Dalhousie novels for me. It's just smooth sailing such as this that gets comparatively little respect, critical or commercial; how glad I am that Precious Ramotswe has given McCall Smith the megaphone that brought these unfashionably serene books to a broad, general market.And how delightedly I received this particular book! The previous entry in the series wasn't very good at all, seeming to me to have been composed on a laptop perched on the author's knee while traveling to signings, clunked onto the never-the-right-height hotel desk for a fast few hundred before passing out, and edited by fax while jouncing over unpaved roads in Botswana. While I'm not quite ready to forget that readerly disappointment, I'm a long way from unhappy after this evening's pleasures.Isabel does several interesting things in this book, and does them with verve. I think it was this sense of verve that I missed in book three, "The Right Attitude to Rain."Cat, Isabel's niece, appears again in this book, though she isn't as central a character...this is but one example of the evolution of the series, that natural fading in and out of some characters. It's just like life. Only better...it takes less time. Recommended, no reservations, for anyone needing a quiet place to relax and have a good conversation with good people.
    • 4/5
      I had pretty much given up on Smith’s Isabel Dalhousie books. Then I ran across some encouraging words about this latest Isabel Dalhousie book and I sought it out. I’m glad I did. Smith gives Isabel a little bite in this installment of the series, a bite she (in my vho) needed; Isabel had always felt like a bit of a namby-pamby, a person observing life, not living it. Now Smith has tossed her smack dab into life where she can no longer sit on the sidelines and bemusedly watch other people make horrible mistakes in their lives.
    • 4/5
      Good continuance of Isabel's story. I always enjoy Mr. McCall's writing.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed following what she thought about things happening to Isabel. Sometimes I dentified with her, others not. Her observation of the world made me think about myself and things surrounding me.
    • 5/5
      I particularly like this philosophical series by Alexander McCall Smith. Isabel Dalhousie (main character, philosopher) muses on moral questions while going about her life editing the Review of Applied Ethics, engaging in conversation, and observing her own and others behavior. Other authors who have engaged me in this way are Dorothy Gilman with her Mrs. Pollifax series and Amanda Cross (aka Carol Heilbrun) with her Kate Fansler series. All 3 authors imbue their main characters with inquisitive minds and the ability to make keen observations.
    • 4/5
      A delightful book- Isabel's philosophical musings grow more insightful and relevant as the series progresses.
    • 4/5
      These are a very quaint series of books. At first had to try and get past the fact that the main character is only in her early 40s despite the fact that she sometimes sounds more middle aged.
    • 3/5
      Another delightful story featuring philosopher, Isabel Dalhousie. I love her continually searching for meaning behind every little act. I love the carefully crafted description of the colors and light that make up the landscapes of Scotland. A fun read.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this book a great deal. The characters were well developed. The visual imagery that the author used made you feel as though you were actually present. A very quick, enjoyable read. I look forward to reading the rest in this series!