Alexander McCall Smith: In the company of cheerful ladies

Reviewed by MARGIE THOMPSON

Smith is a fresh breeze in a world fugged with obfuscation, personal grandstanding and consumerist values. He brings us an Africa far removed from our usual images of that conflict-ridden continent — his beloved Botswana comes at us peacefully, the sky stretching "empty light blue, endless, endless", and he lovingly offers us a set of characters who, while not untouched by the contemporary world, confidently maintain their moral positions, and simple human decency, in the face of the bad behaviour around them.

This is the sixth in his series about the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency, featuring the intrepid, kind-hearted, "traditionally built" Mma Ramotswe. It's been wildly successful. Who would have thought that something so sweetly funny, so innocent, so seemingly old-fashioned, would make the cut in these brash times?
There's no sex, no violence and very little shopping, unless you count assistant detective Mma Makutsi's desire for red shoes with shiny buckles to make her "feel bold when confronting difficult men". (Mma Ramotswe, on the other hand, can't see the need to own more than her one pair of "shapeless brown shoes with bulges on both sides reflecting the shape of her toes".)

But the secret of McCall Smith's success is that, belying the sweetness, these novels are actually very worldly. There are all sorts of modern-day issues in here, such as cruelty between men and women, endemic crime, the growing number of African orphans as a result of Aids and other social ills, the predominance of material status over other values, the search for love — but they're all filtered through his particular brand of artistic genius, which is to see things as a child might, with the clear-eyed wisdom of innocence.

Mma Ramotswe has at last married Mr JLB Matakoni, the proprietor of Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors, and the pair have settled peacefully into life at Zebra Rd, with their two adopted children. Mma Ramotswe's detective agency is as busy as ever, and she and Mma Makutsi have an important contract to find an absconding Zambian businessman.

There's trouble with one of Mr JLB Matakoni's apprentices, Charlie, who has a wealthy new girlfriend and thinks he no longer needs to work for his living; and a mystery (never satisfactorily resolved) involving an intruder who leaves his trousers behind as he flees from beneath Mma Ramotswe's bed, lucky to escape with his life so heavily does she lie upon her mattress.

A close encounter between Mma Ramotswe's trademark little white van and a man on a bicycle brings tragic Mr Polopetsi into their lives; and a sinister visit from Mma Ramotswe's former husband throws her into an uncharacteristic "feeling of dread which stalked her now, like a dark shadow".

It's all just lovely. If you haven't yet discovered the disarming delights of Mma Ramotswe and co, why not begin at the beginning?

* Polygon, $39.95