From a Far and Lovely Country by Alexander McCall Smith

Stop in and have some tea with Mma Ramotswe, or maybe head out to the orphan farm for a piece of Mma Potokwani’s fruitcake, or perhaps head into downtown Gaborone for lunch at the President Hotel with a side order of people-watching. In many ways, the books of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series are extended periods of people-watching in a part of a big city that’s small enough to be a village. Readers don’t see every person in every novel, but the village’s leading characters will be there, as will some new people who have come to visit, or to present the agency with a new case.

In From a Far and Lovely Country, one of the new cases turns up unexpectedly, outside of office hours, and outside of the office for that matter. Mr J.L.B. Matekoni has taken Mma Ramotswe to a new peri-peri restaurant for her birthday, a birthday that he and apparently everyone else in Mma Ramotswe’s immediate circle spent the first couple of chapters forgetting. “And that is not what a good husband does.” (p. 41) Not quite everyone: Mma Potokwani had made a fruitcake for her, and it is in some way thanks to her that the woman with case came over and spoke to Mma Ramotswe in the restaurant.

As the proprietor went off to fetch the other customer [who had told him she would like to speak to the detective], Mr J.L.B. Matekoni lowered his voice and said to Mma Ramotswe, “You are too soft-hearted, Mma. You cannot take all the problems of the world onto your shoulders.”
“You cannot be sure that this lady wants to talk to me about a problem.”
He shook his head in disbelief. “But she must do,” he argued. “Why else would somebody who doesn’t know you want to speak to you in the middle of a restaurant?2
“For any number of reasons,” said Mma Ramotswe, although she was struggling to think of one. (p. 47)

The woman introduces herself as Julia Cotterell, from the United States. Bloomington, Indiana. Indiana is the home state of Clovis Andersen, author of The Principles of Private Detection and something of a patron saint of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. For a brief and shining moment, Mma Ramotswe thinks that, after his visit to Botswana — recounted in The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection — Andersen returned to Indiana and sang the praises of her agency so loudly that Ms Cotterell heard them as well. Alas, the connection was via the formidable Mma Potokwani; Ms Cotterell’s church helps to support the orphan farm, and she was paying a visit.

Before they come to the matter of the case, the three of them have a brief conversation about talking with old friends.

“Sometimes, you know,” [Julia said], “I pick up the phone to call my old friends — just to see that they are still there. I may have nothing to talk to them about, and they may have nothing new to say to me, but I say hi and they say hi in return.”
Mma Ramotswe nodded. “You do not need to say much more than that to old friends.”
Mr J.L.B. Matekoni joined in again. “This is because you have already said everything you have to say to those old friends. They’ve heard it all before — many times, in some cases.”
Julia laughed. “That may be so,” she said. “But then every so often a friend says something new, and your answer is also something new, and you go away thinking, how interesting. That happens too.” (p. 50)

In the twenty-fourth book in a series, many of the characters feel like old friends. It’s good to see them again. A further joy of reading the series is that McCall Smith finds ways for them to say something new, and you read along thinking, how interesting.

Mma Potokwane is the indirect source of the other important case in From a Far and Lovely Country. The secretary who works in the farm’s office, Mma Ikobeng, recounts that she has a daughter who works in a bank, has a successful career, and even owns her own home. She is not married, though, and she would like to be. So she went to what she thought was a respectable club, the Cool Singles Evening Club. He said he was a banker too, but soon enough the daughter noticed that he didn’t seem to know any of the people she knew at the bank where he claimed to work. That wasn’t the only thing he was lying about: she found out that he was married. Asking around a bit, the daughter discovered that her erstwhile beau wasn’t the only married man pretending to be a cool single. In fact, the club seemed to be set up to help married men hide that fact from the women who visited the club seeking suitable men. The whole business appeared to be based on deception, said the house mother, could Mma Ramotswe do something?

The question is not an easy one for Mma Ramotswe. In principle, she would like to stop the injustice being done, and so she says she will do what she can. In practice, it is difficult. First, no law is being broken; people unfortunately tell plenty of fibs when attractive members of their preferred gender are involved. Second, how will Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi find out anything about how the Cool Singles Evening Club operates? They are both lovely people, but they are not single and they are not, not to put too fine a point on it, cool.

The third strand of the book is spun from Mma Ramotswe’s forgotten birthday. Upon remembering it the next day, Mma Makutsi apologizes and says the she has ordered a present that is sure to please Mma Ramotswe. Classic miscommunication follows. Some days later, Mma spends part of a pleasant work break browsing in the store where Mma Makutsi placed the order. The store’s owner does not know the order is to be a surprising present, and tells Mma Ramotswe that her package has arrived. In the course of examining the item, Mma Ramotswe damages it accidentally. Unfortunately, says the store owner, it was a special order and cannot be returned; furthermore, a repair is beyond the store’s capabilities. What to do?

From a Far and Lovely Country is full of investigations but with no crimes. Julia Cotterell has an old family connection to Botswana, and she has come to learn more, to find someone if possible. The end of her telling the story to Mma Ramotswe may be the best scene in the book, breathtaking in a heartfelt way. The discoveries that follow are much like old friends giving new answers, with people behaving in unexpected ways that make perfect sense from their perspectives. To discover what’s happening at the Cool Singles Evening Club, the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency turns out to have the perfect agent: Charlie, who has progressed from feckless mechanic’s apprentice at the garage and repair shop next door to junior investigator. He is plausibly cool and plausibly single, and part of the target male audience. Off he goes on his first time leading an inquiry. Over the course of it, he learns much more than just how a business is running a con. In the question of the errant present, Mma Ramotswe puts her tact to best use, and calls again on the resourcefulness of Mma Potokwane.

Of course everything comes out all right in the end, because that is the kind of book that all of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency books are. People are surprising at every turn, how interesting.