In the Company of Charming Ladies Return to Book Review Page Return to Home Page

By Alexander McCall Smith

Pantheon 2005

Unlike some other detective series featuring lady protagonists, McCall Smith’s series about Mma Precious Ramotswe of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency in Gaborone, Botswana, just become better with each new volume. This addition to the series introduces new characters who are every bit as interesting as those that readers have already grown used to in the previous episodes. As with at least one other offering in this series, a surprise ending offers the likelihood of a changed destiny for one of the major characters. Also changed somewhat from the previous Botswana books is a changed style. Fewer mystery vignettes appear in this offering; instead, longer narrations intertwine and gravitate together at the conclusion--except for a mystery the remains unresolved.