Alexander McCall Smith. To the Land of Long Lost Friends. Pantheon, 2019. No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency.
We are big fans of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency stories. To the Land of Long Lost Friends is the twentieth in the series. If you are reading this novel for the mystery, this book is weaker than most of the others. This is not the book to read to be introduced to the series. The main characters of Precious, Grace, and Charlie are well established in previous books in this series. Having said that, if you already know the characters, you will enjoy the tale.
Precious Ramotswe does a favor for a friend—a long lost friend. Her partner in the agency Grace Makutsi is doing a follow-up for a case they have already solved. Their assistant detective Charlie is getting really involved with his girlfriend Queenie-Queenie whose family is very wealthy. Charlie, on the other hand, only owns two sets of clothes.
Precious runs into an old friend she thought was late, i.e. deceased. It turns out that the newspapers misidentified her as the victim of a car accident. Her friend asks her to help to find out why her adult daughter has nothing to do with her any more. Her daughter works at a diamond exchange, drives a fancy car, and apparently has two houses. Although diamond exchanges are strictly regulated, some criminals have in the past skimmed money or stolen diamonds from such places.
Previously the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency was hired by a woman who was suspicious that her husband was seeing another woman. It turned out that he was taking an evening tutoring session in mathematics. Although this seems to settle the matter, Grace keeps nosing around because she wonders why a man would not tell his wife about going back to school.
Charlie and Queenie-Queenie have fallen for each other, but it will take years before he can afford her bride price. Her body-builder brother Hercules offers Charlie some part time work to help him out, but it sounds illegal. Should Charlie take the offer? Does that mean that Queenie-Queenie’s father’s fortune was gained by criminal actions?
As always, there are some satisfying endings with this story, and, as always, we see the author’s delight in people and in the continent of Africa.