As the subtitle says, it's a modern retelling. I think it would have come out differently if written by a modern woman than how Sandy handled it. It's only getting three stars from me because it fails to meet my expectations, not because there's anything particularly wrong. Just don't think it's the same book, even though he keeps all the plot points the same. 
 My problem? Emma here isn't very likeable. Yes, in the classic she's controlling and sometimes cruel, but she doesn't seem mean-spirited or intentionally so. Rather she's (I apologize) clueless. She doesn't see the trouble she's making for herself and for others while she's trying to make people happy. And that is her goal, I believe, whilst Austen is sending up the society about which she writes. 
 In McCall Smith's story she lacks an innocence that protects her in the original from becoming simply a manipulative bitch. Instead of a social commentary it's now a psychoanalysis (with a touch of homoeroticism).