At once the nosiest and the most sympathetic philosopher you are likely to meet, 40-ish Isabel Dalhousie—half Scottish, half American—lives in a big old house in Edinburgh, where she has taken the editor's post at the Review of Applied Ethics and founded the Sunday Philosophy Club. From the author of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, this slightly mysterious, quietly philosophical series is "the literary equivalent of herbal tea and a cozy fire … a world of kindness, gentility, and creature comforts."—NYTimes

Isabel Dalhousie's new son Charlie presents her with the myriad wonders of new life, in this fourth novel in the series, and his doting father Jamie presents her with an intriguing proposal: marriage. Yet Isabel's curiosity continues unabated (even when she is ousted as editor of the Review of Applied Ethics by the ambitious Professor Dove), and she uncovers an irresistible puzzle when two unusual paintings by a deceased artist mysteriously appear at auction at the same time.