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Blue Shoes and Happiness, the seventh book in Alexander McCall Smith's delightful series about the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, is like a warm breeze off the Kalahari.
Fans of the internationally best-selling novels know they are set in Africa and center around the formidable Precious Ramotswe, a large and clever woman who values kindness, honesty and a nice hot cup of Botswana bush tea. She is the head of the two-person agency.
In each novel, Mma Ramotswe -- Mma, pronounced "may," is used throughout the books to address women -- tackles at least one crime while a subplot swirls, which usually involves her assistant, Grace Makutsi, or maybe her husband, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni.
What's slightly surprising in Blue Shoes is that Smith has thrown some very modern topics at the humble cast of characters. Feminism, for example, threatens the impending marriage of Mma Makutsi to furniture store owner and stutterer Phuti Radiphuti. And -- gasp! -- Ramotswe goes on a diet.
One of the most charming portrayals in the series is that of the rotund Ramotswe, a "traditionally built" woman. In Blue Shoes, our lovely heroine is suddenly faced with several comments about her weight and the realization that she has high blood pressure. At one point, she sadly turns down a sugary doughnut, which she knows would bring "such bliss."
One quibble with the book: the mysteries. They're odd. One involves superstitions at a game preserve and another focuses on blackmail by a local newspaper columnist. Neither is quite as enticing or captivating as the small-town domestic situations Ramotswe usually solves so adeptly.
As for the blue shoes in the title? They, too, represent modernity. They're not the sensible shoes that a traditional woman's wide foot might require, Ramotswe points out. They're beautiful new shoes in a shop window, and assistant detective Makutsi must have them. Yes, she acknowledges, they pinch her feet, but she's happy.
Even the disapproving Ramotswe can appreciate that, saying it's important "to feel happiness, and then to remember it."
In the end, modernism, it turns out, hasn't done any real damage. Whether solving serious crimes, shopping with friends for impractical footwear or giving in to society's quest for thinness, Precious Ramotswe remains a traditional woman who values sitting on the veranda, watching the sun go down and feeling the dry, sweeping winds of the land. Readers will find happiness and remember it, too, long after closing Blue Shoes.
Blue Shoes and Happiness
By Alexander McCall Smith
Pantheon, 227 pp., $21.95
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