Making the world right

It does not become clear what country the title of From a Far and Lovely Country (2023) by Alexander McCall Smith refers to until the end of the novel, but that is not the only mystery resolved in the long, final chapter.

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency novels are not mysteries in the usual sense — nobody gets murdered — yet even so the agency's founder, Precious Ramotswe, looks for answers to do her part to make the world right.

In this, the 24th in the series, a woman comes from America to try to find relatives of a man who meant a lot to her and who may have come from Mma Ramotswe's own hometown. He left during World War II and never returned home. Does he still have relatives in Botswana?

And then there is a singles club that may actually just be a ruse so that married men can meet single women. Charlie, the apprentice mechanic and apprentice detective who is not particularly good at either, gets his chance to handle his own case. Now a married man himself, he is sent to investigate the singles club.

Those are the mysteries, such as they are, but a reader doesn't need a murder for Precious and her colleagues to provide interesting reading.  This may not be the best in the series — in fact the books seem to have hit a bit of a snag lately — but it is still good enough to, for the reader at least, make progress toward accomplishing Mma Ramotswe's objective of making the world right.