Throughout it all, the ladies (and their men) muse on many topics: unheeded parental wisdom, the benefits of occasional consumption of unhealthy food, the proliferation of extra features on any saleable item, the demise of dining tables and plates, and the curse of phased redundancy and planned obsolescence. Tea and fruit cake often accompany these musings.

The books, like their author, have charm. You cannot overstate the power of this—it’s the missing ingredient in contemporary fiction.” — The Guardian

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THE AUTHOR: Alexander McCall Smith is professor emeritus of medical law at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and has served on many national and international bodies concerned with bioethics. He was born in what is now known as Zimbabwe and he was a law professor at the University of Botswana. He lives in Scotland. That idea means that Orphan Farm matron, Mma Potokwani gets to star in an ad campaign and the photo shoot attracts not only staff of the Detective Agency and the Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors, but also a large support crew from the Orphan Farm. To summarize, A Song of Comfortable Chairs is the kind of book you want to sit with on cold noon and warm your heart. It isn’t a typical cozy mystery or drama. It’s a comfort read that’ll make you think and smile at the same time. That was the problem, she reflected; that was the source of so much unhappiness - there were people who made it their business to stop other people from being themselves; who tried to make people be something they did not want to be. That led to swathes of unhappiness as wide as the Kalahari itself.’

Mma Ramotswe discusses this with her husband, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni, during the special half-hour when the sun is setting and the spouses are relaxing on their verandah. Meanwhile, Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi happen to meet Mma Makutsi's old friend Patience, who came to Gaborone from Bobonong. I cannot tell you the complete and utter joy I get in opening up a fresh new tale from the ‘No.1 Ladies Detective Agency’ series. It is hard to believe this is the 23rd installment! Yes! You read correctly, twenty three .... and still going strong. Precious Ramotswe and her life in Botswana is a place I am always eager to curl up on the couch for. It is a pleasure to step out of the rat race and spend some time with old friends, intriguing mysteries and a journey to a satisfying conclusion. This is such a charming series. I enjoy this series so much because of the unique setting and because it is such a fresh take on the classic female detective stories.

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Patience is visibly troubled, and the detectives learn that Patience recently escaped from a horrible abusive man in her home town. Patience and her 14-year-old-son Modise are now living with a nice man in Gaborone, but Modise's rebellious sullen behavior may get them ejected. So Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi hatch a devious plan to try to rectify the situation. I enjoyed the larger role played by Charlie in this book. He is certainly beginning to mature. Just beginning mind you. I am happy that he has been introduced to tooth paste just in time to save his teeth! I found myself in total agreement with Mma Ramotswe about the importance in our lives of comfortable chairs and of sharing cups of tea and cake with our friends. It is all very cosy and reassuring. For example, Mma Ramotswe takes her employee, part-time detective Charlie, to the dentist; Mma Makutsi goes to the supermarket with her husband Phuti; Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi visit their friend Mma Potokwane at the orphan farm; and more.

This is a different kind of cozy mystery where there isn’t necessarily a dead body, but there is plenty of detecting. I recommend it to all cozy mystery lovers looking for a book with great characters, an entertaining mystery, and an underlying sense of kindness. Grace and Mma Ramotswe meet Grace’s childhood friend Patience, who appears to be dealing with her own issues. Mma Ramotswe comes up with ideas that might solve both issues and provide a happy solution for all of them. The narration is relaxed and takes time to gather momentum. Even then, it is languid and lingers here and there before coming to the main point. The writing has a semi-stream-of-consciousness style (an incident happens/ new info is revealed, and one of the leading ladies thinks about something relevant from the past). Once I got used to this, I could sync my reading style with the narration.

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The Double Comfort Furniture Store has been selling finely crafted furnishings proudly manufactured in Botswana for two generations. Bills are mounting, accounts are in the red and Rra Phuti Radhiphuti is contemplating mounting a close-out sale. The happy couple could lose their home, as well as business and create financial hardships for their employees. But it wasn’t until the publication of the highly successful The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series that Alexander became a household name. The series has now sold over twenty million copies in the English language alone, and since the books took off, he has devoted his time to writing. As the story opens Mma Ramotswe is musing about Mma Grace Makutsi - her employee at the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. An escape from life’s woes as well as a suggestion for how to make the whole deal more palatable—fragility, fruit cake, and all.” —The Boston Globe

In this latest installment in the beloved No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, Grace Makutsi encounters a pair of quandaries that will require all of her and Mma Ramotswe’s cleverness and generosity to resolve.Precious Ramotswe is contentedly self-described as traditionally built. Her aging little white van attests to her bulk as it lists markedly on the driver’s side. It rarely achieves a speed over 15 miles per hour and frequently requires interventional maintenance by her mechanic and business owner husband, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni who is frustrated in his attempts to have her replace the vehicle. Mr. Matekoni suggests Mma Makutsi is trying to make herself more important because she's insecure. Mr. Matekoni heard that Mma Makutsi's husband, Mr. Phuti Radiphuti, who owns the Double Comfort Furniture Store - is being driven out of business. The furniture store's best selling items are chairs..... I did not find this book intermittently annoying (so it's a definite improvement over the last one), but I am bewildered that the agency can manage to stay in business. The only paying case mentioned here is already concluded, with Grace Makutsi puzzling over how to word their report to the client. There are, however, two personal "cases," one involving a threat to Grace's husband's furniture business, and the other being the problem a friend of hers is having with her teenage son. Thanks to Mma Ramotswe's ingenuity (and that of other regulars, including Charlie), both of those situations are resolved quite cleverly and satisfactorily. So all in all, it's an enjoyable book.