Walking in sunshine

Sinners are more interesting than saints, or so most writers (and readers) of fiction believe. Alexander  McCall Smith disputes this notion in his No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, in which an unusually good woman, Precious Ramotswe, holds our interest in novel after novel. She is the title character in The Woman Who Walked in Sunshine, the 16th installment. Sunshine seems to follow her wherever she goes, even when she takes a well-deserved, if undesired, holiday.

The holiday is Grace Makutsi’s idea. The ambitious younger woman, who has tapped Mma Ramotswe’s generosity to advance all the way from secretary to co-director of the agency, persuades her to take a few days off. Mma Ramotswe suspects Mma Makutsi is more interested in running the business by herself for awhile, but when everyone else in the detective agency/auto garage encourages her to take time off, she agrees.

Soon it turns into a busman’s holiday, however, for she becomes involved in the life of a street boy who, to survive, has started his own little protection racket. Then she learns of a new case Mma Makutsi is working on that apparently has her overwhelmed. It involves a supposedly great man whose reputation is threatened with scandal after his death. Mma Ramotswe looks for answers without letting her associate know she is helping out.

McCall Smith gives his readers some surprises this time around, and in so doing proves that doing right isn’t the same thing as being right, or perhaps that even when walking in sunshine one can trip over a stone in the road.