Consistently good series. The situation with Mma Makutsi seemed to have been resolved a little too neatly, but otherwise good. An interesting perspective on the male of the species from Mma Makutsi and Mma Ramotswe. ( )

I'm tempted to move to Botswana after reading this series; the author has made me fall in love with this country and her people. ( )

Number 4 in the Precious Ramotswe series, in which her assistant ventures into entrepreneurship and Precious gets some competition.

I always like Mma Makutsi. She never gives up, she always tries to make the best of her sort of poor situation. She has a lot of guts. ( )

Life is never dull at the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. Mma Ramotswe has successfully helped her fiancé, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni, overcome his illness, but she has yet to persuade him to set a date for their wedding. Their adopted children are becoming a handful. Their employee, Mma Makutsi, has opened a typing school for men and fallen in like with one of her students. And a male detective agency has opened across town.

That probably makes this book sound tense and exciting, but the Botswanans are far too polite for anything of that sort. This book is charming, plain and simple. If you want traditional mystery antics, you'd best look elsewhere. No one ever shouts at anyone else, or insults them, or slaps them around. Instead, they approach even the most difficult of confrontations with friendly small talk and polite banter. They refer to certain people by their full names, (ie, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni), presumably as a mark of respect. They're genuinely nice to one another. It is not, perhaps, the most compelling thing out there, but it's still a pleasure to read.

This particular volume pushes the characters in a couple of new directions, too, and that's nice to see. My main beef with the last couple of books was the lack of forward movement. Things changed, sure, but there wasn't all that much to it. To be honest, there's still not a whole lot to it, but this book is definitely an improvement on the last couple. Mma Makutsi, in particular, comes into her own as she takes the initiative and discovers some new talents.

I'd certainly recommend this to anyone looking for a heartwarming read that celebrates Africa with every word. You can tell that Alexander McCall Smith loves Botswana and her people.

(This review originally appeared on my blog, Stella Matutina). ( )