From a Far and Lovely Country by Alexander McCall Smith

 (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #24)

240 pages

"This latest installment of the beloved No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series finds Botswana's premier detective agency as busy as ever, with no shortage of senstive situations requiring Mma Ramotswe's keen eye and discerning input. Through it all, Mma Ramotswe will demonstrate that there are solutions to all manner of difficulties, there to be discovered as long as one is led by kindness, grace, and logic, and can rely on the wise counsel of close friends and loved ones. Sometimes, she reminds us, the best solutions to life's problems can be found with a bit of good humor, generosity of spirit, and a steaming cup of red bush tea." -- from the publisher

Lovely and endearing and sweet to the soul. Happy sigh. One of my favorite quotes from the book, "...an important part of forgiveness was allowing the past to fade, like an old photograph exposed to the sun." Four out of five stars for me.

To the Land of Long Lost Friends by Alexander McCall Smith

To the Land of Long Lost Friends by Alexander McCall Smith
(No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency #20)
240 pages

"Mma Ramotswe has reconnected with an old friend who has been having problems with her daughter. ...The young woman appears to be involved with a charismatic preacher. But are his ministrations entirely of a godly nature?

"Elsewhere, Charlie is also struggling with a tricky matter of the heart. He wishes to propose to his girlfriend, Queenie-Queenie, but he's struggling to come up with a bride price that will impress her father. When Queenie-Queenie's brother offers to help by giving him a job, the offer may not be quite what Charlie expected."  --from the publisher

Another delightful installment in the series, but somewhat less complicated than most of the others.  I carried it around for a few days before starting it, because I knew it would be over too quickly.  Happy sigh.  Now I wait to see if AMS writes number 21.  I gave it four out of five stars.

The Colors of All the Cattle by Alexander McCall Smith

The Colors of All the Cattle by Alexander McCall Smith
(No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #19)
240 pages

"When Mma Potokwane suggests to Mma Ramotswe that she run for a seat on the City Council, Mma Ramotswe is at first unsure. But when she learns about the proposed construction of the flashy Big Fun Hotel next to a graveyard, she allows herself to be persuaded. Her opponent is none other than Violet Sephotho...

"Meanwhile, Mma Ramotswe has acquired a new client: one of her late father's old friends, who was the victim of a hit-and-run accident. Charlie volunteers to be the lead investigator in the case to prove he's ready to be more than an apprentice, as well as to impress a new girlfriend."        --from the publisher

This is another lovely installment in the series. Alexander McCall Smith continues to develop and grow the endearing characters. I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with them in their home country of Botswana.

The Colors of All the Cattle by Alexander McCall Smith

The Colors of All the Cattle: The New No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Novel by Alexander McCall Smith --- 228 pages

Heading back to Botswana with Mma Ramotswe and her friends is always a  pleasant change from the stress and upset of modern life. In this latest book, number 19  in a series spanning 20 years, Precious Ramotswe, owner of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, is inveigled into running for a seat on the Gaberone City Council by her good friend Mma Potokwane, the Matron of the local Orphan Farm: Mma Potokwane is not a woman who takes no for an answer, and Mma Ramotswe agrees that someone should stop conniving property developer Gobe Maruti from building the Big Fun Hotel right next to the local cemetery and disturbing the resting place of the late. 

Mma Potokwani is convinced that Mma Ramotswe, with all her detective experience, will be able to stop the developer in his tracks. But Mma Ramotswe is not so sure that she is cut out for a political career, which involves public speaking, and argument, and being constantly in the public eye, but as her friends rally around her she decides to leave it all in God's hands. Her campaign slogan is simple: "I can't promise anything but I shall do my best." And as always, she does.

Another heartfelt and lyrical adventure from master storyteller McCall Smith.

Click HERE to read the * review from Publishers Weekly.

Click HERE to read the review from Kirkus Reviews.

Click HERE to read the review from the New York Journal of Books.

The House of Unexpected Sisters by Alexander McCall Smith

The House of Unexpected Sisters by Alexander McCall Smith
(The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #18)
240 pages

"Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi are approached by their part-time colleague, Mr. Polopetsi, with a troubling story: a woman, accused of being rude to a valued customer, has been wrongly dismissed from her job at an office furniture store.  Never one to let an act of injustice go unanswered, Mma Ramotswe begins to investigate, but soon discovers unexpected information that causes her to reluctantly change her views about the case...

"With the generosity and good humor that guide all her endeavors, Mma Ramotswe will untangle these questions for herself and for her loved ones, ultimately bringing to light important truths about friendship and family--both the one you're born with and the one you choose."  (from the publisher)

These books are delightful and refreshing for me.  McCall Smith lives up to his series standard with his latest installment.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Now how long until the next one is published...

The House of Unexpected Sisters by Alexander McCall Smith

The House of Unexpected Sisters: The New No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Novel by Alexander McCall Smith --- 227 pages

The 18th book in this much-loved, long-running series is one of McCall Smith's best efforts. Botswana’s first female private detective, Precious Ramotswe and her co-director Grace Makutsi – who's upped her title again, to Principal Investigating Officer – agree to take on the case of Charity Mompoloki, a young widow with two children to support, who has been fired from her job at an office furniture company in Gaborone, because an important client said she was rude to him. Charity steadfastly maintains her innocence of the charge; and since up until then she had been a top performing saleswoman, Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi are looking to see what other motive the store owner, Rra Gopolang, might have had to dismiss Charity.


Mma Ramotswe is distracted from the case however, when she sees a photograph in the Botswana Daily News of a nurse named Mingie Ramotswe working in Lobotse. Mma Ramotswe is immediately intrigued: her surname is unusual; she was an only child and besides her and her daddy, there were only a few cousins. She wonders who this Mingie could be.  But when she finds out, it turns everything she believed about her family completely upside down. 

Then her friend Mma Potokwane warns Mma Ramotswe that her abusive ex-husband, Note Mokoti, has come back to Gaborone, creating more anxieties for Mma Ramotswe (the last time Note returned to Gabarone he tried to extort money from Mma Ramotswe).

How McCall Smith finally resolves all the disparate threads of this story is both clever and emotionally satisfying.  His traditional coda at the conclusion of the story reminds us just how powerful is the bond that connects a person with a beloved place.

Click HERE to read the review from Publisher's Weekly.

Click HERE to read the review from Kirkus Reviews.

Precious and Grace by Alexander McCall Smith

Precious and Grace: The New No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency Novel by Alexander McCall Smith --- 227 pages

Very few authors write about compassion and forgiveness as convincingly as Alexander McCall Smith. He has created a world that is less than perfect and a heroine who  can acknowledge those imperfections and still face life and its problems without cynicism or despair.

Whether she is dealing with a woman seeking to exorcise the ghost that mars her memories of childhood in Botswana, or extricating a naive associate from a questionable business deal, or finding a forever home for a stray dog, or gently encouraging Mma Makutsi to bury her feud with the notorious Violet Sephotho, Precious Ramotswe understands forgiveness is the only road that frees us from the dead weight of the past. The seventeenth book in the series is another gentle delight.

Click HERE to read the review from Publishers Weekly.

Click HERE to read the review from Kirkus.

Click HERE to read the review from the Washington Times.

Click HERE to read the review from the Mystery People blog.

Precious and Grace by Alexander McCall Smith

Precious and Grace by Alexander McCall Smith
240 pages (of beautiful moments)

     I'm a huge fan of this series.  In fact I just added Gaborone, Botswana to the list of locations in my weather app.  I may need an intervention.
     The central story is about a woman from Canada who wants to reconnect with her nanny and childhood friends from her time in Gaborone.  The detectives are on the case, but have to tread lightly when they perceive some strange aspects to the woman's story.  Side stories include a naive friend being hoodwinked into a dishonest investment scheme, and a stray dog who insists he belongs to one of the mechanics at Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors.
     McCall Smith has a delightful way of expressing his ongoing themes of love, loyalty, friendship and charity.  This novel gave particular emphasis to grace and forgiveness which he translates as knowing what to remember and what to forget.
     If you decide to read the series you'll want to read the books in order.

A Death in the Family by Michael Stanley

A Death in the Family: A Detective Kubu Mystery by Michael Stanley --- 359 pages

Not quite a cozy and not quite a police procedural, the Detective Kubu mystery series presents a less idealized, slightly grittier version of life in contemporary Botswana, a small, arid country bordering South Africa, than that found in Alexander McCall Smith's better known No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency Series.

In this the fifth book of the Kubu Series, Assistant Superintendent David "Kubu" Bengu of the Botswana Police, is shocked by the senseless murder of his own elderly father, a man of upright character, well-respected by his neighbors, and suffering from the early stages of dementia.  What's even worse is that Kubu, the best detective on the Force, has been forbidden to participate in the investigation.  But driven by grief and stubbornness, Kubu attempts to snoop around behind his boss's back.

When another inexplicable murder occurs --- an official in the Department of Mines --- Kubu's boss sets him on that case. It looks like suicide, but Kubu quickly discovers this suicide looks highly suspicious.  Then an American mining consultant who was a friend of the victim is attacked by a knife-wielding assailant. Kubu is convinced that all three crimes are linked and have to do with a proposal to expand a Chinese uranium mining concession near the historically important town of Shoshong.

To keep Kubu from compromising the investigations by his obsession with finding his father's killer, his boss sends him to represent Botswana at an international police conference in New York City in the middle of winter. Kubu's close encounter with the Big Apple provides some comic relief and yet another opportunity to meddle with the investigation.

Of course it takes Kubu's superior instincts to pull together all the various threads and find the solution, but not before a riot is engineered in order to cover up another murder.

Click HERE to read the review from Publisher's Weekly.

Click HERE to read the review from The Strand Magazine.

Click  HERE to read the review from Book Reporter.

The Woman Who Walked in Sunshine by Alexander McCall Smith

The Woman Who Walked in Sunshine: The New No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Novel by Alexander McCall Smith --- 213 pages

this is the 16th book in the prolific McCall Smith's best known and well-loved series of cozy detective stories featuring Mma Precious Ramostswe of Botswana.

As her dedicated fans all know, Mma Ramotswe is not one to sit back and take it easy. Her life is busy and filled with responsibilities, and she is a conscientious wife, mother, friend and business woman. So it is with some misgivings that she  allows herself to be persuaded to take a week's holiday, leaving her partner Mma Makutsi in sole charge of the No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency.

But on the very first day of her holiday, Mma Ramotswe encounters a delinquent-in-the-making, a small boy named Samuel set adrift on the streets of Gabarone and decides to intervene.

Then she discovers that in her absence Mma Makutsi has undertaken a very delicate case of a recently deceased politician with a large and loyal following whose reputation has been posthumously called into question. Convinced that Mma Makutsi is in over her head, Mma Ramotswe launces her own investigation. When Mma Makutsi finds out it puts a serious strain on both their partnership and their friendship.

Then Mma Ramotswe learns that Mma Makutsi's arch rival, the scheming Violet Sephotho, has opened a secretarial school in competition with Mma Makutsi's beloved alma mater, the Botswana Secretarial College. Both Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi know that Violet Sephotho has zero interest in education so this so-called college is a scam of some kind that must be quickly nipped in the bud.

Click HERE to see the review in The Scotsman.

Click HERE to reaad the review from Publishers Weekly.

The Handsome Man's De Luxe Cafe by Alexander McCall Smith

The Handsome Man's De Luxe Cafe: No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Novel (15) by Alexander McCall Smith --- 227 pages

The fifteenth novel in this very popular "cozy" mystery series set in Botswana.

Mma Makutsi, returned from maternity leave, is settling into her new role as (junior) partner in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, and facing some unexpected challenges in opening her own business on the side, The Handsome Man's De Luxe Cafe.

Mma Ramotswe has taken on a case to discover the identity of an Indian woman who has lost her memory and save her from possible deportation by the immigration services. In addition, the kind-hearted Mma Ramotswe has hired Charlie, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni's incorrigible apprentice mechanic, in the hope that he might do better as an apprentice detective.

Sorting out all of these changes and challenges requires many cups of redbush tea, abundant sympathy, and all of Mma Remotswe's tact and gentle persistence.

Click HERE to read a review from The Washington Times.

Click HERE to see reader reviews on Goodreads.com.

The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon by Alexander McCall Smith

The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon: The New No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Novel by Alexander McCall Smith --- 242 pages

The 14th installment in McCall Smith's well-loved cozy mystery series about Mma Precious Ramotswe and her friends, has a reflective, almost pensive feeling, as Mma Ramotswe attempts to reconcile the comfort of the familiar and reliable with the uncertainty and possibilites of change.

The Botswana of her childhood, the Botswana of her late father, is changing. The traditions of family life and the roles of husbands and wives are changing. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency is changing, with the birth of Mma Makutsi's baby.

And Mma Ramotswe has taken on two new cases: one involves the identity of a nephew named to inherit a valuable farm; the other an anonymous campaign to wreck a fledging business owner's chance of success. In both instances Mma Ramotswe must consider not just actions but intentions to arrive at solutions that satisfy not just the letter of the law but the spirit. In the same way, Mma Ramotswe comes to a decision about the future of the No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency.

Death of the Mantis by Michael Stanley

Death of the Mantis: A Detective Kubu Mystery by Michael Stanley --- 430 pages

Third in the series of police thrillers set in Botswana by Johannesburg natives Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip, featuring Assistant Superintendent David "Kubu" Bengu of the Botswana Criminal Investigation Division.

When an obnoxious employee at the Mabuasehube Ranger Station goes missing and eventually turns up dead with a broken skull at the bottom of a steep ravine in the Kalahari wasteland, nobody is particularly sorry --- Monzo was a man who seemed to go out of his way to antagonize everyone who had to deal with him. Initially the death was assumed to be an accident, the fatal result of a moment's carelessness in an unforgiving environment. But when the local police accuse three Bushmen of murdering Monzo, Kubu is drawn unwillingly into the investigation by his childhood friend, Khumanego. Khumanego is an advocate for the Bushmen people, the small indigenous nomads who have roamed the arid Kalahari for centuries, and he insists that the murder accusation is motivated by racial prejudice. And it is true that there is a well-documented history of racism and oppression in the dealings between the Swetsana people and the Bushmen.

Furthermore, this is definitely not a time that Kubu wants to be away from home and his wife, Joy and their brand new baby daughter, Tumi. Kubu is aggravated to find that his initial investigation indicates that the local police show no inclination to look beyond their first assumptions. He quickly gathers enough evidence to cast doubt on the case and force the police to release the Bushmen from police custody. But this is not enough to clear them of suspicion; so he faces the challenge of finding out what really happened.

When a second, then a third, equally bizarre murders occur, also linked to the Kalahari and implicating Bushmen, Kubu is more than ever convinced that something hidden in the desert is at the root of these strange deaths. The only way to find the truth is to pursue it into the savage wasteland himself. What Kubu discovers there will test all of his assumptions --- and his ability to survive.

 

Deadly Harvest by Michael Stanley

Deadly Harvest: A Detective Kubu Mystery, Introducing  Detective Samantha Khama by Michael Stanley --- 477 pages

The fourth in an intriguing series of police thrillers set in contemporary Botswana. Assistant Superintendent David "Kubu" Bengu of the Botswana CID is investigating the murder of a young and charismatic politician. Detective Samantha Khama, newly assigned as the first female CID officer, is looking into two "cold" cases involving the disappearance of young girls walking home from school. The two investigations intersect when evidence suggests the father of one of the missing girls may be the killer who attacked the politician. But why? Samantha is convinced the girls were abducted and murdered for muti --- powerful talismans prepared and sold by
witch doctors feared for their dark magic, trading on ancient superstitions still lingering at the roots of modern Botswanan society. As Kubu and Samantha follow the leads in their cases, they realize that a dangerous and malevolent witch doctor is operating in Botswana, and his fell influence has penetrated the upper echelons of the national police.

This is a grittier picture of Botswana than that found in Alexander McCall Smith's Number One Ladies Detective Agency books, but at least some fans of that cozy series may also enjoy these murder mysteries, particularly the good-natured Kubu with his fondness for opera, good food, and family.

"Michael Stanley" is the writing team of Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip