Book review: The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon by Alexander McCall Smith

The ninth book I read in 2016 was the fourteenth book in Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon.  In it, Mma Ramotswe deals with two cases.  The primary one has to do with an heir who may not be who he says he is; the secondary one is the one which provides the book's title, when the Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon is the victim of a malicious whisper campaign which threatens to put it out of business.  Both cases are dealt with in a manner unusual to detective novels in general but quite in character with Precious Ramotswe's methods, where reconciliation outweighs the exaction of justice and even the facts themselves.

The major development of the book, however, is the birth of Phuti and Grace Radiphuti's first child.  There is a bit of tension with Mma Makutsi's pregnancy: real tragedies have been few and far between in the series, but Mma Makutsi's hard-earned and well-deserved happiness always feels somewhat precarious.  The real disruption, however, comes when Mma Makutsi leaves the agency.  Despite having begun the business solo, Mma Ramotswe has had Mma Makutsi by her side virtually from the beginning.  The book ends with an act of love and generosity which cements the relationship between the two women.