Alexander McCall Smith,
Pantheon, $24.95 214 pages
Trouble is brewing again in Botswana for the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency. Mma Precious Ramotswe has just been hired by a local farmer to find the person behind some dangerous sabotage on his farm. On top of that, Charlie, her husband’s apprentice, has run away to avoid his responsibilities and her associate detective, Mma Grace Makutsi, is distracted by her upcoming wedding and with finding the perfect pair of shoes.
With his charming characters and setting, The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party will continue to delight fans of the series. The characters are the biggest focus of the books, which are more about their life lessons, mistakes and growth than the mysteries they investigate. The characters are quirky but also feel real and genuine. The reader can feel Mma Ramotswe’s warmth and wisdom and Mma Makutsi’s fierce belief in right and wrong. The mystery of the book is also interesting and is less predictable than it seems on the surface. This is a great book for reading on a summer day and is guaranteed to make the reader smile.
Reviewed by Barbara Cothern