Book review: Tea Time for the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith

The twentieth book I read in 2015 is Tea Time for the Traditionally Built, the tenth book in the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith.

I noted, back in book seven, the younger apprentice's continued lack of a name.   Just as with my cavilling at Grace Makutsi's inexplicable tea preferences or lack thereof, it doesn't take long for Smith to respond to readers' ribbing on the issue.  In this book, the younger apprentice's name is provided promptly and ostentatiously, with a winking conversation between Mmas Ramotswe and Makutsi that all but breaks the fourth wall: "We must start using his name.  It is not kind to be forgetting it all the time."  More than a name, the younger apprentice is also finally given his own characterization, rather than just Charlie's hanger-on, with a surprisingly moving glance into his home and family.

The main mystery of the book involves a local soccer team and its fortunes, but the real action centers on Violet Sephotho and her machinations to steal Mma Makutsi's fiance, Phuti Radiphuti.  In addition, Mma Ramotswe suffers a loss to which Mr. J. L. B. Matekoni responds with both generosity and sensitivity.