When I needed a book to read for the day of my operation – to read in the waiting room, and after the event – I knew straight away that the latest tale of Mma Ramotswe would be absolutely ideal. The Miracle at Speedy Motors is the ninth installment of the No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, and for me embodied all the best aspects of the series. A couple of the previous books had made me wonder whether the shine was coming off the formula, but this episode is a definite return to the form of the early books.

McCall Smith’s lyrical and accessible prose style is as fluid as ever and has always been what makes these books such a joy – he devotes himself fully to writing in a way that’s appropriate to the characters and to their home country of Botswana. You only have to compare his other writings, which are equally excellent but just as different, to see just how thoroughly he inhabits this world.

The Miracle at Speedy Motors features everything we have come to expect: gentle humour, the everyday happenings of life in Botswana, misunderstandings between the central characters, and a case or two for the lady detectives to get their teeth in to.

Here’s a short extract that illustrates the wry humour and abiding affection that permeates this book:

Charlie and Mma Matsuki as brother and sister: the delicious thought begged to be explored. What if such a relationship were to be discovered, through some long-ignored error in the maternity hospital, or through the confusion of some wicked midwife who had switched babies? Would Mma Matsuki, who had often said after the death of her poor brother, Richard, that she would relish he thought of another brother, accept Charlie as that new brother? Or would she feel about him in exactly the way she felt about him now, unrelated? And as for Charlie, would he regret that he had once famously called Mma Matsuki a warthog? For that, surely, would make him the brother of a warthog, and therefore a warthog himself! We should be careful, thought Mma Ramotswe, of the insults we fling at others, lest they return and land at our own feet, newly minted to apply to those who had first coined them.

I enjoyed this book greatly and got through it very quickly. It has set up some story lines for future instalments – for example, the younger of Mma Ramtoswe’s adopted children, Puso, clearly has a story to be told. And will we every find out the name of Mr J. L. B. Matekoni’s younger apprentice? I await these storylines and more cases for the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency with great anticipation, and I also look forward to the BBC TV adaption of The Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency, which is being broadcast at Easter.

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