The Careful Use of Compliments, by Alexander McCall Smith (Little, Brown, Ł16.99)

Straightaway, we enter the genteel world inhabited by Isabel Dalhousie, editor of Review of Appied Ethics, and we can almost hear her 'doux' Edinburgh accent as she grapples with the philosophical issues presented by both her professional and personal life.

Isabel's domestic situation is more complicated now with the arrival of baby, Charlie, whose father, the handsome (and much younger) Jamie, is an ex-boyfriend of Isabel's niece, Cat.

To add to Isabel's entanglements, she is confronted by the possibility of having been offered fake paintings.

McCall Smith is at his most winsome in this novel.