Alexander McCall Smith, The Careful Use of Compliments

The fourth installment in Alexander McCall Smith's Isabel Dalhousie series picks up about a year after the surprising revelation of the last novel. With another dozen novels (and counting?) waiting for me in the series, I guess it's not sustainable to entirely avoid references to major plot developments in these early books. So beware of spoilers. Here's a big one: Isabel now has a baby, Charlie, by her much younger lover Jamie. But Charlie's kind of in the background so far, more of an accoutrement that's sometimes mentioned but doesn't dramatically impact the story or, it seems, Isabel's free time (because she has a willing babysitter in her housekeeper Grace). So, Isabel is free to become entangled in an art-related mini mystery that leads ultimately—after a graceful buildup—to the sort of moral conundrum by which Isabel is so often vexed. At the same time, her tenure as editor of the Review of Applied Ethics is in jeopardy, and I found myself angry on her behalf at the cowardly machinations that would threaten her happy avocation. Another gentle read from McCall Smith. I'm sure I'll be on to the next one shortly.