The Handsome Man’s De Luxe Cafe
Alexander McCall Smith
2014, 227 pages
Fiction
Business is very slow at Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors and Mr. J. L. B. Matekoni is forced to let one of his apprentices go. Charlie tries to keep his job by professing to be a new Charlie who will be more mature and will keep his mind on his work. Mma Ramotswe at the detective agency believes that young men like Charlie will settle down when they find something they are good at and enjoy. She decides to borrow funds to pay his salary for eight months so he can work as an apprentice detective. Mma Makutsi, the co-director, doubts Charlie will do well but her mind is occupied with opening her new business, a cafe for Gaborone’s most fashionable diners. She allows her lawyer to help her choose a chef and wait staff even though her businessman husband advises her to do interviews herself. The detective agency begins work on a case involving a brother and sister who have generously taken in a woman who doesn’t know who she is or where she came from. Charlie is instructed to follow the woman and report back.
While Mma Ramotswe waits to see if Charlie will report all the details of the ongoing case and become a good detective, Mma Makutsi suffers a bad review about her café in the news by her nemesis Violet Sephotho. Will her business efforts fail or will she swallow her pride and ask for help?
This is the 15th book in the No. 1 ladies detective agency series and will appeal to readers of the series and anyone who like a sweet simple story.
Kathy Dill
Concord Public Library
For more information, go to concordpubliclibrary.net.
