Author: Hilary

“The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon” by Alexander McCall Smith

m-14.phpAnother book from Alexander McCall Smith and from perhaps his most beloved series, The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency.

This novel comes just in time for Christmas and is full of good news for almost everyone involved in this Detective Agency: Precious Ramotswe, who runs it, her assistant who has a baby boy, her husband who runs his own garage business, and even his philandering assistant, who takes a surprise turn. The characters in the book who don’t get good news are the ones Precious Ramotswe is asked to look into. There may be one false impersonation. And there are threats against the Beauty Salon of the title.

Alexander McCall Smith is once again in Botswana, where he grew up before returning to Scotland, and a career teaching medical law at the University of Edinburgh, where he now lives. There is a vivid picture of gentle, sunny Africa and the traditional haunts and patterns of living found among its people. One reviewer writes: “The pleasure of these sweet books lies in the clarity and gravity with which the characters reason through everyday dilemmas.” This is another example.

Review by Anne McDougall