Alexander McCall Smith has done it again. Somehow he manages to combine a realistic view of the negative aspects of human nature with a clear belief of the fundamentally good nature of people as expressed by the main characters' sympathetic and kind outlook. With all the media being filled with reports of terrorists and so on, it can lead to a jaded view of humanity. But after reading this book you genuinely have the feeling the perhaps, after all, people are fundamentally good and if they do bad things, that is for a reason. What is particularly impressive is that the author manages to convey that without sentimentality and with great wit. Apparently I wasn't laughing out loud as much reading this one as much as some of the others, but nevertheless, it was still very entertaining and humorous.