McCall Smith, Alexander: Morality for Beautiful Girls

  Amazon  

In the third installment in Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, Precious Ramotswe and her associate Mma Makutsi have a handful of issues to deal with. The most pressing is brought to them by a government man who believes his brother is being poisoned. The case requires that Mma Ramotswe absent herself from the agency for a few days so she can infiltrate the family's home and uncover the truth. Thus left without her superior's guidance, Mma Makutsi manages to shine--despite her own rather odd ideas about the principles of deduction. She handles the case referred to in the book's title, interviewing and assessing the moral fiber of a short list of beauty pageant entrants. Meanwhile she is simultaneously acting as the assistant manager of Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors while its proprietor, Mma Ramotswe's fiance J.L.B. Maketoni, recovers from depression.

A third case is also brought to Mma Ramotswe's attention, but it is left unresolved at the book's end. This seems an odd choice on the author's part, but not necessarily a bad one. Even Mma Ramotswe, for all her acumen, cannot solve all the world's problems.

As usual, McCall Smith's novel is a sweet read. It transports the reader to a more simple, if idealized place--a civilized place, despite that its problems are legion and not always soluble.