Finding home

The theme of finding home runs through Alexander McCall Smith's Precious and Grace (2016), the 17th volume in his No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. So does forgiveness, or the need for forgiveness as much for the wronged as for the one who did the wrong.

This may sound like heavy stuff for a novel that seems light and fluffy when you are reading it, but that is often the case with McCall Smith's novels. There's usually a hard nut or two somewhere in his creamy mixture of chocolate and peanut butter.

A Canadian woman named Susan who spent her girlhood in Botswana comes to the detective agency asking Precious Ramotswe and Grace Makutsi to find the house where she once lived and, in particular, the woman who cared for her, someone named Rosie.

Meanwhile Fanwell, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni's apprentice mechanic, returns with a stray dog. That dog, it turns out, needs a home even more than Susan does, thus giving Precious two assignments, even if only one has a fee involved.

Finding Rosie and the place where Susan grew up turn out to be relatively easy, even if the task does involve a close call with a poisonous snake. The real challenge becomes discovering why this woman wants to find Rosie and what she plans to do after she does.

What's really needed, Precious decides, is not reunion but forgiveness. Forgiveness is grace, and grace is a very precious thing.