Isabel Dalhousie: "Careful Use of Compliments" Quiz

Answer: Charlie

Charlie was three months old. Although Isabel and Jamie hadn't married, Jamie was very much a hands-on father and usually was there in the evening to give Charlie his bath and his dinner. Jamie did ask Isabel to marry him, but Isabel didn't take the proposal seriously and told Jamie that they should wait and leave things as they were.

Answer: It wasn't varnished.

Guy Peploe, the director of the Scottish Gallery and a friend of Isabel, pointed out to Isabel that the painting was unvarnished, which was unusual because Andrew McInnes was fanatical about varnishing his paintings. Peploe told Isabel, however, that he was sure the painting was made by McInnes.

Answer: He had drowned in a whirlpool.

Just before his death, Andrew McInnes's paintings had recently been trashed by some London critics, and he had found out that his wife was having an affair. This had led to suspicions that his drowning was actually a suicide rather than accidental.

Answer: She was being replaced as editor of the journal.

Isabel was particularly shocked, since Professor Lettuce's letter highlighted the success that Isabel had had at the job. Readership had increased, and the journal now was making a small profit. Lettuce informed Isabel that Christopher Dove would be taking her place, and Isabel believed that Dove had plotted against her.

Answer: Christopher Dove

Christopher Dove had come to Edinburgh to meet with Isabel to go over the transfer of the editorship of the "Review of Applied Ethics" journal. Cat stopped by the house while Dove was there, and she and Dove hit it off. Although he was planning to take the sleeper train that evening, Cat offered to show him some sights and take him to dinner first.

She later thanked Isabel for introducing her to "such a gorgeous man".

Answer: George Orwell's "1984"

George Orwell had lived in a remote house on the island of Jura with his adopted son and his sister for a couple of years in the late 1940s, and he wrote most of "1984' there. He finished the book in 1948 and the title was merely the last two numbers transposed.

Answer: A visiting artist had painted the McInnes paintings.

While visiting the house where George Orwell had stayed, Isabel noticed a small picture on the wall and realized that it was a McInnes painting. When she asked the owner of the house about it, he said it actually had been done by a visiting artist named Frank Anderson to whom they had let the house for a week or so. Isabel believed Anderson was responsible for the McInnes paintings that had recently been up for sale in Edinburgh.

Answer: The "Review of Applied Ethics"

The journal had been up for sale for some time, but there weren't any interested parties as the journal didn't generate much profit. After she had been removed as editor, Isabel decided to buy the journal so that she could get her job back and outwit Christopher Dove.

She had some ethical misgivings because "she had shamelessly used her superior financial position", but then she reasoned that Dove and Professor Lettuce had asked for it!

Answer: She referred to McInnes in the present tense.

After Isabel mentioned that the painting Walter Buie was trying to sell might be a fake, Mrs. Buie became enraged and told Isabel that she had "known Andrew McInnes for a long time". She also said that the painting was "far better than anything he painted ten years ago".

Answer: He was Andrew McInnes.

Mrs. Buie had admitted that Andrew McInnes was still alive and that he was selling paintings because he needed money for an operation. Isabel went to see him in the village where he was living under the name of Frank Anderson. She had bought the painting from Walter Buie, which would provide money for the operation and since it was truly a McInnes, she didn't believe he had committed fraud.

She advised him that he should forgive his wife and visit his son, and she believed that he would take her advice.