THE SATURDAY BIG TENT WEDDING PARTY

Four last-minute complications for the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency to sort out before associate detective Grace Makutsi can tie the knot with furniture salesman Phuti Radiphuti.

Mma Precious Ramotswe’s latest client, Botsalo Moeti, made no enemies working for a mining company, and he’s hardly had the opportunity to make any as a farmer. So why has someone killed two of his cattle by cutting their Achilles tendons? Although a trip to his farm persuades Mma Ramotswe that he may have more enemies than he realizes, it doesn’t tell her which of them is responsible. Meanwhile, as usual, “the lady to help people” (The Double Comfort Safari Club, 2010, etc.) must deal with problems closer to home. Charlie, the eternal apprentice mechanic at Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors, the establishment owned by Mma Ramotswe’s husband, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni, seems so determined to avoid Prudence Ramkhwane after she bears his twins that he runs away when he’s taxed with his responsibilities. Violet Sephotho, Mma Makutsi’s mantrap nemesis from Botswana Secretarial College, is standing for a parliamentary seat she’s obviously unqualified for. And Mma Ramotswe has been sighting her beloved white van, which her husband sold for parts when he finally judged it beyond even his expertise to restore, around Gaborone. If it’s true that “there is no heaven for cars,” what should she make of these spectral visions?

Nothing very mysterious here, of course, but the solution to the problem of those dead cattle is wonderfully inconclusive, and you’ll never get through the wedding with dry eyes.