The Careful Use of Compliments by Alexander McCall Smith

This is a book in the Isabel Dalhousie series, my favorite series of McCall Smith's.  Isabel Dalhousie is a moral philosopher who solves mysteries.  Unlike many amateur sleuths whose lives seem to be full of murders and bodies, she usually solves rather small mysteries that seem much more true to life.  She is an intelligent and well-read character, which makes for intelligent stories.  I enjoy her references to poems and philosophers.  If you have read previous Dalhousie stories, you may be surprised (as I was) at the time lapse between the last book and this one.  In this particular story, Dalhousie has a young baby, which is a big lifestyle change from the previous books.  She bids on a painting at an auction that she later suspects of being a forgery and looks into the painting's provenance.  As always in these books, the description of Edinburgh, Scotland is fantastic.  She also ventures to an island for a long weekend, and it made me want to add the islands to my wishful-thinking Scotland trip.  A clever, witty book that is definitely worth the time.