Cover image of "From a Far and Lovely Country," a novel about the famous African lady detectives

Here we are again, back with Mma Precious Ramotswe, proprietor of Botswana’s #1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. And of course all the familiar people in her circle are close at hand as well. Mma Grace Makutsi, self-promoted “co-director” of the agency. Mr. J. L. B. Matekoni, Mma Ramotswe’s husband, mechanic extraordinaire, and owner of the Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors. Charlie, too, part-time mechanic and apprentice detective. Of course Mma Potokwane as well, director of the orphan farm and baker of incomparable fruit cakes. And all these lovely people will become involved in two challenging new cases that only the extraordinary African lady detectives of Gaborone could possibly solve.

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

The lady detectives face twin challenges

At the top of the agenda now is a case Mma Potokwane has passed along to Mma Ramotswe. There at the orphan farm, the love-lorn daughter of a newly hired housemother has gone to the Cool Singles Evening Club in search of a husband. But the man she met there already has a wife. And, apparently, so do all the other men who frequent the place. Somebody’s got to do something about that. And Mma Ramotswe knows just the man to do it. Charlie.

Meanwhile, a middle-aged, mixed-race American woman named Julia Cotterell has turned up, looking for help from the lady detectives. She has come to Botswana in hopes of connecting with her relatives there. The man she thinks of as her grandfather had served as a soldier for the British in World War II but later disappeared. Julia wants to meet her cousins, however distant they may be. And this is a case Mma Ramotswe will have to tackle herself. Because Julia’s grandfather had lived in the village of Mochudi—Mma Ramotswe’s own home village.

Now, of course, both cases will turn out to be more complicated than they seem. And the solutions that the lady detectives and their helpers create will prove to be no solution at all. In fact, they’ll end up causing new problems. But not to worry. Everything’s going to turn out all right in the end. Mma Ramotswe will see to it.

From a Far and Lovely Country (#1 Ladies’ Detective Agency #24) by Alexander McCall Smith (2023) 256 pages ★★★★☆

Aerial photo of Gaborone, capital of Botswana and home of the famous African lady detectives
Gaborone, capital of Botswana, is a thriving city of 250,000 in one of Africa’s, and the world’s, fastest-growing economies. It’s home to Precious Ramotswe and the #1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. Image: Forbes

Another in a series of books loaded with charm

You can’t read the novels in this series without smiling a lot. They’re filled with Mma Ramotswe’s inner dialogue and face-to-face exchanges between her and Mma Makutsi that are sometimes laugh-out-loud funny. Here, as an example of Mma Ramotswe’s thinking, is her reaction upon meeting Julia Cotterill:

“She had heard that Americans liked to talk, and of course people in Botswana liked to chat as well. If there was a Talking Olympics, then America and Botswana would both get gold medals, she imagined, while some other, silent countries—countries you had never heard of, because they never said anything—would go home without any medals at all. That was a pity. She had always felt that anybody who got as far as the Olympics should get something, even if it was only a very small medal made of some recycled, cheap metal.”

Just try sorting out the syllogism in that paragraph.

About the author

Photo of Alexander McCall Smith, author of this series of novels about the African lady detectives
Alexander McCall Smith in 2019. Image: Kirsty Anderson – Bókmenntahátíð

Alexander “Sandy” McCall Smith was born in 1948 and raised in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He is of Scottish descent. After earning both an LLB and a PhD at the University of Edinburgh, McCall Smith became an expert on medical law and ethics and taught the subjects for years there. For years, he wrote both nonfiction and fiction while serving in academic posts in Edinburgh and in Gaborone, Botswana. But with the publication of the first book in the #1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, he turned to full-time writing. All told, McCall Smith has written or edited more than 100 books and has sold more than 40 million copies. His work has been translated into 46 languages. He and his wife, a physician, have lived in Edinburgh for 30 years.

I’ve read all the novels in this series to date but have reviewed only the thirteen most recently published books. Among these are:

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