The Joy and Light Bus Company: No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (22)

"'There is nothing wrong with this bus,' he said. 'Or there won't be, once we have fixed all the things that…' He floundered, before continuing, '… all the things that are wrong with it.' Then he added, hurriedly, 'Not that there are all that many things wrong, I think. Just some. Just three or four … or five. Small things, mostly, like brakes and so on.'"

The Joy and Light Bus Company is the twenty-second book in the No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series by popular Scottish author, Alexander McCall Smith. Having left a very capable Fanwell in charge of Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors, Mr JLB Matekoni attends a business course and returns pensive, eventually sharing that he intends to achieve his full potential. This apparently involves a partnership with an old school friend in a bus company.

What worries Precious Ramotswe most about the scheme is that the necessary bank loan will be taken against the garage and the premises of the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency. Failure of such a risky business venture will impact on them all. (Self-appointed) senior co-managing director of the Agency, Mma Grace Makutsi can see the problem, but understands that "male menopausal behaviour was beyond rational argument". She promises to enlist Phuti Radiphuti's help in talking sense into Mr JLB Matekoni.

Precious seeks the wise counsel of her good friend Mma Potokwani at the Orphan Farm, reflecting that "Wise people had been replaced in the public estimation by that curious category of people – celebrities – who were, for the most part, shallow people not known for their wisdom." Her sound advice is gratefully accepted, even if it does include a recommendation for yoga.

While there, Precious is disturbed by what she learns about one of the newest orphans: there is a suggestion that a well-off family is engaging in a practice long out-lawed. Acting on impulse, she later manages get important information from very close to the source, and cleverly uses a certain woman's susceptibility to superstition to ensure things are set to rights.

A new client wants Agency to investigate the nurse looking after his elderly father when it emerges that his father has willed her his farm, alleging that the woman has exercised undue influence on the old man. When Precious and Mma Potokwani visit the farm, they tend towards a different conclusion but, heeding Clovis Anderson's best advice, they reserve judgement. A meeting with the daughters of the family reveals that things are not quite so straightforward.

No instalment in this series is complete without some mention of Mma Makutsi's nemesis: after witnessing a brazen act of shoplifting by the dreadful Violet Sepotho, attempts to force accountability on her backfire on Mma Potokwani and Precious.

As always, the ladies muse on many topics, including what is required to keep men happy, and Mma Makutsi coins an excellent term for those old-fashioned males who still indulge in sexual discrimination: Past Tense Men.



If you want to know why slugs and beetles in her vegetable garden remind Precious of baboons in the corn, you need to read the book, but that's no hardship! As always, McCall Smith gives the reader some minor mysteries that don't tax the brain too much, laced with plenty of gentle philosophy, astute observations and wise words. This author never fails to delight.