Tears of the Giraffe   by Alexander McColl Smith

More of the same after The Number One Ladies Detective Agency, but the form is still refreshingly naive, and the characters continue to engross. The storyline is equally simple, and although it is far out and a million miles away from life here in suburbia, seems eminently real.

It's the continuing story of Precious Ramotswe. In this book she prepares for a life with her new fiance, the wonderfully enigmatic and surprising Mr J.L.B. Matekoni. His housemaid (who uses his house as a brothel while he is away at work) does not like the turn of events and tries to frame Ramotswe by planting a gun in her house. Matekoni brings home two orphans, one in a wheelchair. The scene where Ramotswe finds out is just the most delicate of cornerstones a book can have. Finally, Ramotswe goes to see a nasty man in a university, and dangerously blackmails him to solve a case she is working on.

I'm sure that if this had been the first of Alexander's books I read, I would be giving it the maximum rating. It being the second, the ultimate surprise, the delight at finding a new discovery, is not there. It comes close, though.