Oh what a delicious delight to have a new No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency book to read. This is the series that took the cozy mystery genre by storm back in 1998 (and got written up in Time Magazine for it) and continues until now, 21 years later and the 20th book. I’ve been hooked since the eponymously titled first book and followed along as they came out, first by hard cover, then by Kindle and for the last several books, by audio- the narrator is superb.

*******
In the Land of Long Lost Friends
by Alexander McCall Smith
2019 / 240 pages
read by Lisette. Lecat – 9h 5m
rating A+ (for the the fun of it!)
# 20 in the series
*******

The series takes place in Botswana where the lead character, Precicouos Ramatswe owns and operates a small detective agency. At this point in the series she has a “partner” (of sorts) and an assistant detective in addition to a family and large circle of friends.

The mysteries her agency solves are mostly minor, cheating husbands, fraud, old feuds ands so on. The characters and gentle wisdom of Mma Romatsswe make the story and the series. The social problems of Botswana are dealt with starting at about the 8th or 10th book, there’s AIDs and corruption and poverty and women’s issues plus old “traditional” ways vs the new modern ways.

If you enjoy cozy mysteries with wonderfully charming characters and interesting settings this might very well be for you, but I strongly suggest you start with book 1. And I am so hoping this is not the end of the series. It didn’t feel like it.