Alexander McCall Smith. A Song of Comfortable Chairs. Pantheon, 2022. The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency.

It has been a while since we had read a No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency Novel. A Song of Comfortable Chairs is the latest. It is a lot of fun. Like some of the other stories in this series, there is no serious crime or even a mystery in the typical sense, but there are problems that need to be solved. And, as always, the characters we know and love are at it again.

In the course of the series, agency founder Mma Precious Romotswe sometimes wonders about her partner, Mma Grace Makutsi. Grace is always trying to promote herself. Perhaps there is some insecurity on her part, but this time she may have gone too far. She has hired a carpenter to expand her desk. She says she needs more desk space to do her work, but everyone knows that the person with the bigger desk is the one in charge. She has also ordered a nameplate for her desk and updated her business cards. How necessary are these things, really?

Now, they do have a client for the reason that many people hire private investigators. He suspects his wife may be having an affair. He names the man, so Grace and Precious begin surveillance. But this creates another dilemma. It turns out the suspected man is having an affair, but not with the client’s wife. How much do they share with their client? And what if the two-timing man is married to someone they know?

In many ways, though, the biggest problem for the people in the agency is the one that gives the tale its title. Phuti Ramaphuti, Grace’s husband, is having financial problems. A new furniture store has opened up in town. The new store seems to be taking most of the Double Comfort Furniture Store’s customers away. Whenever Rra Ramaphuti’s store announces a sale, before their ads and flyers are out, the new store has announced prices that undercut his prices. He is getting depressed and is thinking he may have to go out of business. What then would happen to Grace and his son and their home?

Family problems can be burdensome. Grace has been reunited with a childhood friend from her hometown up north. Her old friend Patience has moved to Gaborone, their city and Botswana’s capital. Patience has had a rough life. She has a fourteen-year-old son who was conceived when she was raped by a stranger. She lived with a number of years with a man who abused both her and her son. She has moved to Gaborone with a man who has a good job and treats her kindly. The problem is that her son wants nothing to do with the man, and the man is thinking of breaking off their relationship because of the boy’s sullen and obnoxious behavior.

In many ways, the boy is just being a teenager going through the typical adolescent identity crisis. He may also be generally mistrustful of men with his mother. But if his behavior represents the character he is growing into, it will be very hard for Patience and any man who might be interested in marrying her.

We should also mention this: Guess who is appearing as a model in all the advertisements of the competing furniture store? None other than Grace’s forever nemesis Violet Sephoto.

A Song for Comfortable Chairs, then, tells us how Precious, Grace, Phuti, along with apprentice Charlie and the Orphan Farm’s Mma Potokwane solve most of these problems. One scene in which they begin to work out the plan to reform Patience’s son is hilarious. Let us just say it involves virtually everything a diplomatic person would never say to a teenage boy.

There is a little detective work involved to help solve the furniture store’s problems. There is also some creative advertising. As readers of the series know, Violet Sephoto is quite attractive, much to Grace’s dismay. Their solution involves a different kind of advertising model—a more “traditionally-built” woman. As with some of the other best stories of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, A Song of Comfortable Chairs contains an abundant quota of joy.