To encourage the reader to sample one of the 16 novels by Alexander McCall Smith in the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series may seem to be an exercise in futility.  You may very well be one of the millions of readers of this popular series.  But just in case you haven’ t discovered McCall Smith’s delightful works, let me encourage you to do so.

The latest contribution to the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective series is The Woman Who Walked in Sunshine in which the No. 1 woman detective of Botswana, Mma Precious Ramotswe, a woman, she admits, of “traditional” build who drives a tiny white van.  She is maneuvered by her assistant, Mma Grace Makutsi, another woman of “traditional” build and Precious’ husband, Ra J.L.B. Matekoni, owner of Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors, to take a long needed holiday.  After few hours of relaxation, however, the result is no holiday at all for Mma Ramotswe since she has to solve the case that Mma Makutsi takes on in her absence and keep administrative peace in doing so.

If you haven’t experienced the adventures of Mma Ramotswe it would be better to begin at the beginning with, The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency.   Here you meet the whole cast of characters in Precious’ world who make these novels so entertaining.  There are characters like Grace, J.L.B. and his mechanic assistant, Charlie and Grace’s archenemy, Violet Sephotho who is “untraditional” both in build and moral standards.  The plots are simple ones in which the women detectives do solve mysterious everyday problems.  In the process of doing so the reader has the pleasure of getting to know Mma Ramotswe and the history and life of Botswana.

Mma Ramotswe, and I suspect Alexander McCall Smith, loves her country.  As she travels the streets of Gabarone, the capital, visits her birthplace, her relatives and the inheritance from her beloved father, a herd of fine cattle, Mma Ramtswe exults in the beauty of the land and the richness of its traditions and history. 

At the same time she is confronted with the difficulties that the 21st Century are bringing to Botswana. Both the disappearing effects of former days and customs, and the challenges of the contemporary world for the people of her country serve as the context for the cases she has to solve:  personal crimes stemming from superstition and witchcraft, family feuds and revenge, unfaithful husbands and politicians, crooked businesses (Violet is a prime suspect in this category), and people.

McCall Smith presents the reader in each of these novels with the opportunity to puzzle over an intriguing mystery, meet colourful and memorable characters, and the opportunity to visit a country that he obviously loves. 

In an interview published in the Globe and Mail last year, McCall Smith praises author, B.F. Benson’s characters, Lucia and Elisabeth Mapp, two formidable women whom Benson brings delightfully alive in his novels.  It is perhaps in his poetic reveries on the beauty and challenge of Botswana and the aliveness of his own characters that make these books so rewarding.