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A Song of Comfortable Chairs

On sale

1st September 2022

Price: £18.99

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Selected: Hardcover / ISBN-13: 9781408714454

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The twenty-third book in the perennially adored The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series.

Grace Makutsi’s husband, Phuti, is in a bind. An international firm is attempting to undercut his prices in the office furniture market. Phuti has always been concerned with quality and comfort, but this new firm seems interested only in profits. To make matters worse, they have a slick new advertising campaign that seems hard to beat. Nonetheless with Mma Ramotswe’s help, Phuti comes up with a campaign that may just do the trick.

Meanwhile, Mma Makutsi is approached by an old friend who has a troubled son. Grace and Phuti agree to lend a hand, but the boy proves difficult to reach, and the situation is more than they can handle on their own. It will require not only all of their patience and dedication, but also the help of Mma Ramotswe and the formidable Mma Potokwani in order to help the child.

Faced with more than her fair share of domestic problems, Mma Makutsi deals with it all with her usual grace. That, along with the kindness, generosity, and good sense that the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency is known for, assure us that in the end, all these matters will be set right.

Reviews

Oakville News
A story that possesses all the cosiness of your own, very comfortable armchair... captivating
New York Journal of Books
McCall Smith is an author who sees his characters and their world, fully and tenderly. And that makes for a book that is as comforting to sink into as a well-worn armchair
LoveReading
A delightful addition to one of the most endearing and readable series in the world of fiction... ensures that this series fully deserves all the accolades it has received
Book Reporter
McCall Smith is a master orchestrator of multiple plotlines and currents of influence... a clever, hilarious and sometimes poignant mystery tale
Booklist
As they would sink into one of Phuti's large, overstuffed, extremely comfortable armchairs, so will readers delightedly immerse themselves in descriptions of the Botswana landscape; in Precious and Grace's conversations over mugs of red bush tea; and in the doings of the rest of the cast of comic characters... Another delight from the prolific McCall Smith
Waterstones
Another irresistible slice of Botswana-set cosy crime