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Content snapshot
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Violence
None
No violence; the ethical puzzle involves whether to help someone you dislike
Language
None
No strong language
Sexual Content
None
No sexual content
Substance Use
None
No substance use
Emotional Intensity
Some
The specific philosophical question of whether personal feeling should influence ethical obligation; Isabel's habit of helping anyway and then wondering why
What this book is about
Minty Auchterlonie — a woman Isabel has known as something of a rival — appears unexpectedly and asks for help in a situation involving financial fraud. Isabel must decide whether to assist someone she does not like and who has not always treated her well. Alexander McCall Smith's sixth Isabel Dalhousie novel is the most explicitly philosophical in the series' quiet way, using the situation to examine what gratitude and forgiveness actually require and whether the ethics of helping someone are affected by your personal feelings about them.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
sixth Isabel Dalhousie novel by Alexander McCall Smith
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