The Careful Use of Compliments

B O O K S B Y A L E X A N D E R M c C A L L S M I T H

I N T H E I S A B E L D A L H O U S I E S E R I E S

The Sunday Philosophy Club

Friends, Lovers, Chocolate

The Right Attitude to Rain

The Careful Use of Compliments

I N T H E N O . 1 L A D I E S ’ D E T E C T I V E A G E N C Y S E R I E S

The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency

Tears of the Giraffe

Morality for Beautiful Girls

The Kalahari Typing School for Men

The Full Cupboard of Life

In the Company of Cheerful Ladies

Blue Shoes and Happiness

The Good Husband of Zebra Drive

I N T H E P O R T U G U E S E I R R E G U L A R V E R B S S E R I E S

Portuguese Irregular Verbs

The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs

At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances

I N T H E 4 4 S C O T L A N D S T R E E T S E R I E S

44 Scotland Street

Espresso Tales

Love over Scotland

The Girl Who Married a Lion and Other Tales from Africa T H E C A R E F U L U S E O F C O M P L I M E N T S

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T H E C A R E F U L U S E

O F C O M P L I M E N T S

E

A l e x a n d e r M c C a l l S m i t h p a n t h e o n b o o k s

n e w y o r k

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2007 by Alexander McCall Smith All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Pantheon Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

Pantheon Books and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Grateful acknowledgment is made to Random House, Inc., and to Edward Mendelson, Executor of the Estate of W. H. Auden, for permission to reprint excerpts from “Heavy Date,” copyright © 1945 by W. H. Auden, and

“Refugee Blues,” copyright © 1940 and renewed 1968 by W. H. Auden, from Collected Poems by W. H. Auden. Reprinted by permission of Random House, Inc., and the Estate of W. H. Auden.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data McCall Smith, Alexander, [date]

The careful use of compliments / Alexander McCall Smith.

p. cm.

eISBN: 978-0-375-42527-1

1. Women editors—Fiction. 2. Art dealers—Fiction.

3. Art—Forgeries—Fiction. I. Title.

PR6063.C326C37 2007

823'.914—dc222

2007015073

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