Book review: The Handsome Man's De Luxe Café by Alexander McCall Smith
Prolific author Alexander McCall Smith's African female sleuth, Precious Ramotswe, returns in the 15th instalment of the hugely popular No1 Ladies' Detective Agency series of novels.
by Alexander McCall Smith
Pantheon
Prolific author Alexander McCall Smith's African female sleuth, Precious Ramotswe, returns in the 15th instalment of the hugely popular No1 Ladies' Detective Agency series of novels.
Just like the other episodic, languidly paced stories, mixes McCall Smith's gentle humour with wry observations about the characters, customs and culture found today in Botswana's dusty capital, Gaborone.
Ramotswe, who founded the agency, once more comes to the rescue of her troubled clients, while also solving problems facing her friends and colleagues using her intuition, acute understanding of human nature and an uncanny talent for spotting tiny details that help her to uncover the truth.
An Indian man and his sister ask for her help in discovering the identity of a middle-aged woman, who they say has come to their home for help after claiming to have lost her memory.
Yet Ramotswe soon finds herself distracted when her husband, Mr J.L.B. Matekoni, who runs a local garage, tells her he needs to sack a long-serving mechanic, Charlie, because profits have fallen dramatically.
Grace Makutsi, her loyal former secretary-turned-detective, who has been newly promoted as partner in the detective agency, is planning to open her own restaurant, The Handsome Man's De Luxe Café, but finds the new enterprise is much more challenging than she expected.
