The House of Unexpected Sisters

September 18, 2017
The case of Charity Mompoloki, who claims she was fired unjustly from her job at an office supply company in Gaborone, Botswana, preoccupies Precious Ramotswe and her ambitious assistant, Grace Makutsi, who now styles herself principal investigating officer, in Smith’s pleasing, leisurely paced 18th No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency novel (after 2016’s Precious and Grace). Charity was charged with having been rude to a customer, but might her male boss have had devious reasons for getting rid of her? Meanwhile, Precious’s disreputable ex-husband, trumpet player Note Mokoti, has resurfaced in Gaborone. And Precious’s chance discovery of a hitherto-unknown relative, a nurse named Mingie Ramotswe, initially causes her a great deal of angst. Precious, who’s so good at helping others in need, suddenly has serious personal problems, and her gentle husband, Mr. J.L.B. Maketoni, can provide only limited solace. On the way to the surprising resolution, Smith delivers some important lessons about human frailty and the value of charity. Agent: Robin Straus, Robin Straus Agency.

October 1, 2017
A deceptively slow opening movement ushers in one of the most complicated dockets ever for the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency."Life," thinks Mma Precious Ramotswe, is "more or less perfect." But only a few hours after this contented reflection, Mr. Polopetsi, the part-time chemistry teacher who volunteers his services at the agency, presents her with an unexpectedly vexing problem. Charity Mompoloki, the sister of a fellow teacher, has been fired from her job on the sales floor of The Office Place for speaking rudely to a customer--something she tearfully assures Mma Ramotswe she didn't do, a statement Mma Grace Makutsi, the agency's co-director and a fellow alumna of the Botswana Secretarial College, is prepared to defend to the death. If Charity wasn't rude, then why did her boss, Mr. Gopolang, show her the door? Looking for answers, Mma Ramotswe (Precious and Grace, 2016, etc.) visits Charity's mother, Mma Lentswe, in Mochudi, her own hometown, and inadvertently makes a discovery that seriously threatens to derail her from the increasingly puzzling case she's agreed to investigate, a discovery that will lead to still further developments, some of them wonderful, some shattering. Meanwhile, word comes that Note Mokoti, Mma Ramotswe's abusive first husband, has been spotted at the local branch of the Standard Bank. The traditionally built detective, normally a rock of strength and sanity, might well be overwhelmed by all this intrigue if her creator didn't trot out perennial bad girl Violet Sephotho for one more round of villainy, provoking Mma Ramotswe's unsurprising reaction: "Well, she does get around, doesn't she?"Though the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency increasingly feels more like a therapy group than a commercial enterprise, there's no denying the slow-burning power of its revelations in this 18th installment.

COPYRIGHT(2017) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from October 15, 2017
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency novels (this is the eighteenth in the series), starring Mma Precious Ramotswe, the owner and chief detective in the agency located in Botswana, and her comically difficult sidekick, Mma Grace Makutsi, are not detective stories in any conventional sense. Bodies are rarely found or referred to (unless it's someone dragged off by a crocodile or punctured by a mamba snake). But evil frequently rears its head (most often seen in the recurring character, the beautiful and treacherous Violet Sephotho), and thorny problems abound. But the mysteries that people bring to the agency, located under a huge acacia tree adjacent to Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors, definitely take a backseat to the vivid characters, their often humorous personality clashes, and the glimpses of contemporary life in Botswana. This time the official mystery presented to the agency involves the possibly unjust firing of a woman working at an office warehouse. What seems an open-and-shut case gets more and more complex, with Precious and Grace arriving at different conclusions. The hub of the novel, though, concerns the personal difficulties that Precious faces, based on surprises that force her to reconsider her past and her relationships. New readers may be somewhat perplexed, but longtime fans of the series will feel as if they've come home again.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Of all McCall-Smith's ongoing projects, the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency novels remain the standard bearer, with the largest built-in audience of devotees, especially in libraries.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

June 1, 2017

No plot details yet for the 18th outing of the top-notch ladies' detective agency run in Botswana by Precious Ramotswe with the help of Grace Makutsi, but McCall Smith has been busy. On May 9, he received the Medal of Honor for Achievement in Literature from the National Arts Club in New York.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.