The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party

Life in Alexander McCall Smith's Botswana moves at a slow pace, and listeners will welcome the diversion as Mma Ramotswe makes her twelfth entry in the series. While it's helpful to know the characters--no worries, Mma, one can quickly catch on. Just let yourself get swept away to Botswana and the latest cases of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. Lisette Lecat perfectly defines these characters. Her beautiful timing and the precision of her speech are perfect, and the way she rolls her "r's" and her "m's" impressive. Mma Ramotswe's investigations are always clever puzzles, and the wisdom and wit of the stories are continually diverting. WEDDING PARTY brings listeners the impending wedding of Mma's assistant, Grace Makutsi, as well as the travails of one of Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni's apprentices at Speedy Motors. R.F.W. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

Starred review from February 28, 2011
Smith again makes the sublime look easy in his winning 12th No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency novel set in present-day Botswana (after 2010's The Double Comfort Safari Club). As usual, the mystery that the agency's proprietor, Mma Ramotswe, must resolve—the identity of the culprit who maimed two of her client's cattle—takes a backseat to personal matters. Mma Ramotswe, who still mourns the sale to a scrap dealer of the battered white van that was her traveling companion for many years, is unsettled when she thinks she sees the vehicle moving along the road. Meanwhile, her longtime assistant, the prickly Grace Makutsi, is nearing the home stretch of her lengthy engagement. Smith has few peers in capturing the quiet moments of people's lives, and his empathetic lead has one of the biggest hearts in modern literature. Even newcomers will quickly be drawn into Mma Ramotswe's unconventional approach to investigations and rapidly feel that they are with old friends.