October 2015: Book notices

Alexander McCall Smith, The Woman Who Walked in Sunshine

In Alexander McCall Smith's latest No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency novel, Mma Ramotswe is talked into taking a vacation, and leaving the agency in the hands of her sometimes difficult colleague, Mma Makutsi. But it's difficult to let go, and Mma Ramotswe finds herself almost as busy on vacation as she is at work. There's a case to solve, a young man to save, and a curiously-named new business in town that needs to be investigated. Mma Ramotswe approaches everything with her trademark grace and wisdom. Readers of McCall Smith's Botswana novels will enjoy this installment in the series as much as his previous books. The leisurely pace of McCall Smith's stories can make one feel as if nothing much is happening in the books. However busy Mma Ramotswe may be, she still has time to contemplate the broad Botswana sky, to enjoy conversations over cake and tea, and and to mull over the remembered wisdom of her beloved late father, Obed Ramotswe. As slow as the books may seem, however, we have watched the series' main characters grow and change quite a lot over the course of 16 books, perhaps none so much as Mma Makutsi, whose circumstances have changed dramatically since she first came to work in the agency. In this latest novel, we see something new emerge in Mma Makutsi, and so does her boss. It's a pleasure to witness.

Tony Parsons, The Murder Man

The first chapter of this book is an adrenaline rush of a read and it sucked me in. Things calm down after that, which is a little disappointing, because it wasn't what I'd expected. But the book is still quite good. It's the first in a series featuring detective Max Wolfe, who's newly transferred to homicide after the events of the first chapter. This is in London, mind. Pretty soon he becomes involved in the investigation of an unusually gruesome murder, which ultimately leads to the grounds of an exclusive boarding school. Max is a single father with a five-year-old daughter, irritatingly named Scout. And a new dog, whom we hear a lot about. And Max likes to box. Clearly we'll be hearing a lot about that as well in upcoming installments. I liked the story and Max himself well enough to read another, but I probably won't go out of my way to keep tabs on the series.

Elizabeth Edmondson, A Man of Some Repute

A Man of Some Repute is the first book in a new series set in 1950s England. Hugo Hawksworth is a young intelligence officer whose lame leg--damaged under mysterious circumstances--means he can't work in the field anymore. Instead, he's sent to work in the Government Statistics Department in the small town of Selchester. The job turns out to be more interesting than Hugo anticipated--the Department is not what it seems--as is life at Selchester Castle, where Hugo is put up upon his arrival. It turns out there's a mystery to solve: the earl of the castle went missing seven years earlier, and he wasn't what he seemed either. I enjoyed this book. It's not edge-of-your-seat exciting, but it was a pleasant mystery with characters I'd be interested in reading more about. My one criticism is--SPOILER here--the equus ex machina toward the end of the book: having the damsel in distress saved more by her horse than by our strapping hero somehow diminished things for me. But the next book in the series is due out in a few weeks, and I intend to get my hands on it.