Isabel and her fiancé know who they are and where they come from. But not everybody is so fortunate. Jane Cooper, a visiting Australian philosopher on sabbatical in Edinburgh, has more questions than answers. Adopted at birth, Jane is trying to find herbiological father, but all she knows about him is that he was a student in Edinburgh years ago. When she asks for Isabel's help in this seemingly impossible search ... well, of course Isabel obliges....

Amateur sleuth Isabel Dalhousie is a philosopher who also uses her training to solve unusual mysteries. Isabel is Editor of the Review of Applied Ethics - which addresses such questions as 'Truth telling in sexual relationships' - and she also hosts The Sunday Philosophers' Club at her house in Edinburgh. In this first book in McCall Smith's new series Isabel investigates how a yong man caould have fallen to his death from the top balcony of the Usher...

After a patient dies accidentally, an impeccably credentialed doctor is accused of fraudulent involvement with a new drug. Isabel launches an investigation, concerned that a good man's reputation will be ruined. Could the doctor be taking the fall for someone else's mistake? Or did a nefarious pharmaceutical company put its lofty ambitions ahead of safety?

A couple who are old friends of Isabel's ask for her help in a rather tricky situation: A successor is being sought for the headmaster position at their alma mater. The board has four final candidates but has received an anonymous letter alleging that one of them has a very serious skeleton in the closet. Could Isabel discreetly look into it? And so she does. What she discovers about all the candidates is surprising, but what she discovers in herself...

"Our favorite moral philosopher is caught up in a delicate dispute between members of a prominent family as her husband, Jamie, is dragged into his own internecine rivalry. Isabel accepts an invitation to serve on the advisory committee of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, but soon finds herself swept up in an all-too-familiar dilemma. David is the grandson of a Scottish clan chief and is supportive of Scottish nationalism. But his fervent beliefs...

"Milo is thrilled to be starting at the country's most prestigious school. But it soon becomes clear that something sinister is going on. The headmaster, Dr Pummelcrush, is bent on brainwashing the students and turning them into mindless, unthinking human robots. When Milo stumbles across a bright and colourful secret garden and meets its joyous gardener, he and his friends begin to open their minds to a whole new way of thinking: philosophy. Can...

"Isabel becomes involved in a delicate paternity case in the twelfth installment of the beloved Isabel Dalhousie Series. Isabel finds herself befriended by Patricia, a single mother whose son, Basil, goes to school with Isabel's son. Isabel discovers that Basil is the product of an affair Patricia had with a well-known Edinburgh organist, also named Basil, who was, rumor has it, initially reluctant to contribute financially to the child's upkeep....

"Eighteen-year-old Robert Weekes is a practitioner of empirical philosophy--an arcane, female-dominated branch of science used to summon the wind, shape clouds of smoke, heal the injured, and even fly. Though he dreams of fighting in the Great War as the first male in the elite US Sigilry Corps Rescue and Evacuation Service--a team of flying medics--Robert is resigned to mixing batches of philosophical chemicals and keeping the books for the family...

Screen legend Chow Yun-fat stars as Confucius in the inspiring, action-packed saga of a leader whose wisdom and cunning were more powerful than any sword. In a sweeping battlefield epic, Confucius finds his land threatened by the fires of war. After leading the nation's most powerful army to victory against hordes of invaders, the new hero finds even greater danger in the jealous eyes of the aristocrats he fought to protect.