The Double Comfort Safari Club

The best part about this book is the description of the Delta Country. I was unaware that there was such a geographical feature in Botswana. It is regretful, however, that this section of the book which is the locus of the Double Comfort Safari Club is very abbreviated, really almost an after thought where nothing that advances the story line very much occurs.
There are at least three other stories loosely tied together in this book and they all seem to be more important than the Delta trip to the story. Of all the books in this series–and I have loved all of them until this one–this is the only disappointing one. It was just slow with no compelling action at all. Because of all of the disconnected stories, I’m not even sure what the theme is.

The books of the series, ‘The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency’, based in Botswana, are an absolute delight to read. Human relationships and interactions make up the mysteries. I have all of the books in my permanent library.

Mma Ramotswe, head of the agency, and Mma Makutsi, assistant detective, have received a letter asking them to find a guide in a safari camp named after an animal. The guide has been left $3000 dollars by a Mrs. Grant who had been treated very kindly by him. Unfortunately, she could not remember the guide’s name either! The executor of the will enclosed a picture of Mrs Grant and said that the Embassy had recommended Mma Ramotswe’s agency.

A priest, Mr. Mateleke, asks Mma Ramotswe to find out if his wife is being unfaithful. She is surprised, as Mma Mateleke had asked her to find out if the priest is being unfaithful!

Earlier, J.L.B. Matekoni, husband of Mma Ramotswe and owner of the Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors, was called out by Mma Mateleke to rescue her as her car had stopped dead. When he arrived, he is surprised to discover another driver, who had been speeding, had stopped to help her. When Mr Matekoni showed up, the driver saw that Mma Mateleke had help, turned his car around and went back the way he had come! Mr Matekoni was puzzled, as the driver had seemed to be in such a hurry to get down the road!

Mma Makutsi’s fiance, Phuti Radiphuti, has had his leg crushed and he is in the hospital. His foot must be amputated. His aunt is trying to keep Mma Makutse from seeing him, telling her that she surely won’t want to marry a man with only one leg. The aunt is very jealous of Mma Makutsi.

Mma Makutsi sits with him every day and he is happy to see her. She finds that he has been discharged into the aunt’s care, and the aunt refuses to let her come into the house to see him!

Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi must solve all these problems.

I recommend this book very highly.

For any reader looking for respite from the unrelenting violence of the world we live in, The Double Comfort Safari Club is a worthy antidote. The characters in this novel “. . . talked about all sorts of things . . .: about weddings and children and money. About cattle. About jealousy and envy and love. About cakes. About friends and enemies and people they remembered who had gone away, or changed, or even died. About everything, really.”

“About everything,” indeed. The #1 Ladies Detective Agency Series is less a collection of detective stories than a continuing portrait of a worldview unfamiliar to most North Americans. Mma (“Ms.”) Precious Ramotswe, founder and proprietor of the agency, and her sidekick, Grace Makutsi, exemplify an idealized view of the culture of Botswana, an island of peace and stability in a neighborhood that includes South Africa, Namibia, and Zimbabwe. In their speech and their internal dialogue, Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi, as well as virtually every other major character in the series, manifest the kindness and slow-moving rhythms of their remarkable country.

Consider this example of interior dialogue:

“Mma Makutsi was not certain that floating could be called a sport. Was there a Botswana floating team? She thought not. What would such a team do? Would they have to float gently from one point to another, with the winner being the one who arrived first? Surely not.”

This twelfth installment in the magnificent #1 Ladies Detective Agency Series is worthy of its predecessors in every way. Like its forbears, The Double Comfort Safari Club revolves around several intersecting plotlines. An American estate lawyer has asked Mma Ramotswe to track down a nameless guide at a safari camp who has been granted a generous bequest by a former client. Mma Makutsi’s fiancee, Phuti Radiphuti, loses a foot in a tragic accident at his furniture store, precipitating a standoff between Mma Makutsi and his nasty “senior aunt.” Meanwhile, Mma Makutsi’s nemesis, the beautiful but unscrupulous Violet Sephotho, has victimized another unsuspecting man, who has come to Mma Ramotswe for help. And a female friend asks Mma Ramotswe to confirm her suspicion that her husband, a “part-time minister” and radio evangelist, is having an affair. Complications ensue in every one of these unfolding stories — and every one of them is satisfactorily resolved by the redoubtable Mma Ramotswe, that bottomless well of understanding and humankindness.

The author, Alexander McCall Smith, is an extraordinarily prolific writer. In addition to the #1 Ladies Detective Agency Series, he continues to write three other series of fictional tales, plus children’s books and short stories — not to mention the many nonfiction articles and books he has written as a widely recognized authority on bioethics and medical law. McCall Smith is a lawyer who has spent many years teaching at universities in Botswana, Ireland, and Scotland. He was born and raised in the country now known as Zimbabwe.

(From Mal Warwick’s Blog on Books)

Not thrilling but still a good read, preferably with a nice cup of tea (redbush of course!). These stories promote the traditional pleasures, values and courtesies of old Botswana, as presented to us by the good characters. The series formula still works but I now find myself second-guessing the clients’ stories long before the ladies get around to it. Sometimes there seems to be too much serendipity to their successes, and not enough detection. Perhaps that’s a good thing, these are women with loving husbands and good friends, who enjoy shopping, chatting and watching the world go by. These are definitely not skinny tough girls in scruffy jeans and thick sweaters, with no sense of humour, who are too busy to comb their hair or sit down to eat a home-cooked meal, i.e. the driven loners of the Nordic noir! So far neither Precious Ramotswe nor Grace Makutsi has been kidnapped, beaten up or shot, and I sincerely hope they never will be. Threatened, yes; they wouldn’t be good detectives if they didn’t sometimes make the baddies nervous.

I just love this series of books. They are pure escapism and pure joy. Precious Ramotswe, Grace Makutsi and Mr J L B Matekoni are now like old friends. This book is just as wonderful as the ones preceding it.

I always have a huge smile on my face after reading one of these books. Perfect to lift the mood.