Alexander McCall Smith. The Colors of All the Cattle. Narr. Lisette LeCat. Prince Frederick MD: Recorded Books, 2018. CD-ROM. No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency.

We continue with reviews of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency Series. As usual, this contribution is pleasant, loving with a hint of danger and nemesis. As usual, there are multiple plots, not all of them having to do with crime detection, but the stories have become (dare I say it?) precious to us.

First, the crime. Precious Ramotswe, founder of the detective agency, meets an old acquaintance—a friend of her late father, a doctor who has dedicated his life to caring for the people in rural Botswana. In his eighties and more or less retired, has a condition that causes some tremors. While walking in the rural village where he lives, he is run over by a blue car that keeps on going. There are no witnesses and he is badly injured on the head and limbs. The police have done what they can, but there are no leads. The good doctor enlists Mma Ramotswe to help.

Mma Ramotswe is a loose ends about a course of action until her sometime assistant and longtime apprentice at Speedy Motors, Charlie, suggest that he might be able to help. He has an old friend named Eddie who lives in the doctor’s village, works in the local auto repair shop, and owes Charlie some kind of favor.

Charlie visits the village and talks with Eddie, who is nicknamed Giraffe because he is so tall. Eddie does not recognize the car but says he will ask around.

Meanwhile, the strong-willed Mma Potokwane, head of the orphanage, convinces Mma Ramotswe to run for the open position on the Gabarone City Council. She reluctantly accepts, mostly because the only other candidate is none other than the self-aggrandizing nemesis of Grace Makutsi, Violet Sephoto.

We note that in the later No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency novels, Violet Sephoto no longer directly appears in the story but lurks in the background like Professor Moriarty in Sherlock Holmes’ London—or, one might add, like T.S. Eliot’s parody of Moriarty, “Macavity the Mystery Cat.”

Ms. Sephoto makes all kinds of broad promises, mostly the promise of various government freebies to people. Mma Ramotswe just says that she will adhere to the truth and be honest to the best of her ability.

At issue is a proposal to build a new tourist resort called the Big Fun Hotel. The problem is the developer wants to build this hotel next to the main cemetery in the city. Many locals dislike the idea out of respect for their late ancestors, but the developer has money and influence.

Grace Makutsi, Precious Ramotswe’s partner in the agency, volunteers to investigate the financing of the hotel project. She sets up a meeting with the head of the project to see what she can discover on the pretense of representing her husband’s furniture store.

Her husband, Phuti Ramaphuti, is not crazy about this. He tells his wife that, in spite of having the appearance of a patriarchy, Botswana is really run by strong-willed fat women like Mmas Potokwane and Ramotswe. This causes a rift between the married couple. Up to this point, Mma Matkutsi had been inordinately proud of her husband.

When she meets with the man in charge of the hotel project, it is clear that he had done his homework. He knows that Mma Makutsi works in Mma Ramotswe’s detective agency and a lot more. Typical of Mma Maktutsi, she does not really know what to do but manages to cover up her shoddy work.

Meanwhile Charlie is threatened. If he does not quit his investigation, he can expect injury or worse.

And Charlie’s personal life has gotten complicated, too. His current girlfriend Queenie Queenie (yes, that is her name) has been coy about her background. We learn that her family is wealthy, but she tries to keep that information on the down low for two reasons. (1) She is obviously concerned that men would be more interested in her money than in who she is. (2) Her brother, nicknamed Hercules, is a bodybuilder and has scared away most young men who have expressed an interest in her. Charlie’s encounter with Hercules does not go so well, either.

The Colors of All the Cattle is complicated fun. For example, the reader may ask how anyone could vote for Violet Sephoto over Precious Ramotswe? Still, as an American, I can look at last week’s news and see some extravagant promises made by candidates for office here. We can understand it.

As you may have noted above, we listened to a recording of this book. Lisette LeCat does an truly professional job of getting an African accent and yet speaking clearly enough so we can understand every word and a get even a greater flavor of the culture.

As always, Alexander McCall Smith’s concluding observations are delightful. His books are character driven, and they work because he loves people. This love comes through almost every sentence.