Book review: In the Company of Cheerful Ladies by Alexander McCall Smith

The fourth book I read in 2015 is In the Company of Cheerful Ladies, the sixth book in The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith.  Amusingly enough, considering my review of the previous book, Smith almost immediately deals with the bush tea issue, albeit only by forcing Grace Makutsi to have the same awkward conversation with her employer that she's already had; Mma Ramotswe even explicitly remembers Mma Makutsi making both kinds of tea and then reverting to drinking bush tea with no explanation why.  I stand by my opinion that the author simply forgot and was reminded by readers and posts on the internet.  Mma Makutsi's teapot does play a part in the larger plot of the book, but it could still have been used if she had been drinking her preferred kind of tea all this time.

Apart from that side issue, I really enjoyed this book.  Mma Ramotswe gets an It's a Wonderful Life moment in which the people to whom she has showed kindness and generosity vow to help her in what appears to be her own hour of need, and both Mma Makutsi and a newly-introduced character whom one swiftly grows to like and respect are rewarded in a manner they richly deserve.  A villain is rather two-dimensional, doing all but twirling his moustache as he cackles evilly, and a few plot threads appear to be dropped in wrap-up; but I'm willing to overlook more than that in exchange for the most Mitford-esque installment in the series thus far.