Mma
Ramotswe has a shock when she spots an old friend at a wedding,
as she had read in the paper that she had died in a road accident.
But Calviniah is very much alive, and has two mysteries that
need solving. Her daughter, Nametso, is refusing to have anything
to do with her, and her friend, Poppy, has lost all her money.
It looks as though Poppy has become embroiled with a mechanic
turned reverend whose congregation has a lot of ladies in
it, but nobody is actually paying to have these cases solved.
Meanwhile, Charlie’s lack of funds is a major problem
if he wants to marry rich man’s daughter Queenie-Queenie.
I
know I am always saying it, but these wonderful life-affirming
books ought to be available on prescription. You don’t
need to be a mystery reader to enjoy them, as this is not
really what they are about; they concern the human condition
and how we navigate our way through life. In this they have
done what very few books manage and transcend their own genre,
rather in the way Terry Pratchett did. Mma Ramotswe gets to
ponder on the nature of goodness and tolerance, and how important
it is to keep these in our hearts. She meets a new orphan
at the farm, and her assistant, Mma Makutsi, delves deeper
into a case where a man might or might not be having an affair.
We get to see how little Charlie has and see how he ekes out
an existence, we get to look inside the local diamond sorting
office, and attend a wedding where there is a world of difference
between those under shelter and those left outside in the
hot sun. Botswana is portrayed as a stable country that might
not have the conflicts that benight some other parts of Africa,
but we also see the grim reality of lives affected with poverty
and AIDS. This is not a long book but there is a lot in here,
much of which will linger after the final page has been turned.
Reviews
of other titles in this series:
Blue
Shoes and Happiness, #7
The
Good Husband of Zebra Drive, #8
The
Miracle at Speedy Motors, #9
Tea
Time For The Traditionally Built, #10
The
Double Comfort Safari Club, #11
The
Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party, #12
The
Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon #14
The
Handsome Man’s DeLuxe Café #15
The
Woman Who Walked In Sunshine #16
Precious
and Grace #17
The
House of Unexpected Sisters #18
The
Colours of all the Cattle #19
To
the Land of Long Lost Friends #20
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