To the Land of Long Lost Friends

August 26, 2019
Smith’s winning 20th No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency novel (after 2018’s The Colors of All the Cattle) opens at a wedding, where Mma Ramotse, “doyenne of private investigators in Botswana (not that there were any others apart from her assistant, Grace Makutsi),” thinks she sees a ghost. The ghost is in fact an old friend, Calviniah Ramoroka, whose death was falsely reported in a newspaper years before. Mma Ramotse and Calviniah later meet for lunch, and Calviniah confides that her daughter, Nametso, who works as a diamond sorter in Gaborone, has suddenly started ignoring her. When Mma Ramotse investigates, she discovers that Nametso is driving an expensive car, which provides a key clue to explaining the young woman’s behavior. Meanwhile, agency assistant Charlie
receives a surprising proposal from his girlfriend, Queenie-Queenie
, and Grace, with Charlie’s help, looks into the case of an errant husband, which is more complicated than it appears. As usual, the warm, humorous interactions among the characters count more than the detecting. Smith’s humanity shines throughout. Agent: Robin Straus, Robin Straus Agency.

October 1, 2019
A ghost who's not a ghost presents Mma Precious Ramotswe, of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (The Colors of All the Cattle, 2018, etc.), with a case that's hardly a case at all. Mma Ramotswe is stunned to see the specter of Calviniah Ramoroka, whom the newspapers had reported killed in a car accident, at a local wedding. In fact, her old school friend assures her, the victim in that crash was another Calviniah Ramoroka. She's alive, well, and flourishing, except for one heartache she confesses to Mma Ramotswe over lunch at the Sanitas Garden: Her daughter, Nametso, a diamond sorter in Gaborone, has recently announced her estrangement from her mother without giving a reason. Even though Calviniah hasn't asked her to look into the matter, much less given her a retainer, Mma Ramotswe determines to get to the bottom of the mystery. Her assistant, Grace Makutsi, has meanwhile insinuated herself into a case that's still less of a case. Although Mma Ramotswe has written her recent client Mma Mogorosi to reassure her that her husband's repeated visits to a math teacher are probably not covering an adulterous liaison, Mma Makutsi asks to make further investigations on her own--investigations that soon involve a mysterious silver Mercedes and require the services of Charlie, who works as a part-time helper at the agency when he's not working as a part-time mechanic at Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors, the peerless establishment run by Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni, Mma Ramotswe's husband. And Charlie is embroiled in another matter as well. Queenie-Queenie, his girlfriend, is pressing him to name a date for their marriage, and when he pleads his inability to pay the weighty dowry customary for a young woman of her standing, she introduces him to her brother, Hector, whose partnership with a moneylender puts him in need of someone who can frighten clients into paying their debts by sabotaging their cars. Diffuse even by this bestselling series' generous standards, though the final not-quite-revelations carry a sunset glow.

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Starred review from October 15, 2019
Clever deceptions form the backdrop of this twentieth novel in the massively popular No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. Readers return to Botswana, where the wise Precious Ramotswe solves the sticky situations people bring to her in the building that is part office, part car-repair garage. Precious also contends with the comically passive-aggressive help of her overly proud sidekick assistant, Grace Makutsi, and the almost completely useless help of part-time detective and all-round goof-off, Charlie. It starts with a wedding, where Grace reconnects with an old friend who has a problem: her once-close daughter, who works in the Botswana Diamond Sorting facility [Facility?], now refuses to have anything to do with her. As Precious and her team try to speak with the daughter, their suspicions grow that some of the diamonds may be making their way out of the sorting office. The most intriguing subplot belongs to Charlie, who wants to marry a wealthy young woman but can't afford the bridal price of cattle, until her brother invites him into a sketchy moneymaking scheme. The plots develop slowly, with most of the novel given over to long conversations and various characters' musings; these frequent detours may annoy new readers but will thoroughly delight longtime fans of the series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

May 1, 2019

Mma Ramotswe tries to help an old friend with a difficult daughter, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni tries to assist a client who wants to throw his own no-good brother out of the house, and Charlie's girlfriend, Queenie-Queenie, seems to be falling for Fanwell.

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