Alexander McCall Smith’s No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series can be relied on for tender and kind surprises, and also the reliability of love and trust among the main characters. Of course they have their flaws - Precious Ramotswe, who leads the unusual detective agency in Botswana, is a woman with traditional values and pays careful attention to the guidance found in her detection manual written by Clovis Andersen. She can thus be a little myopic, and a bit hard-wearing on her small but practical van. Her assistant, Mma Makutsi, is a secretarial school graduate with big dreams. She tends to be suspicious and not very generous in her assessments of potential clients. And then, there is Charlie, the brash youngster employed part time by the Mma Ramotswe and also works part time in the adjoining car repair business of her husband J.L.B. Matekoni.
In How to Raise an Elephant, the first mystery provided is fairly readily solved: The bent tailgate of the detective agency’s van and its powerful earthy scent after Charlie borrows it reveals the apprentice using the van to transport a baby elephant. But Charlie’s neighbourhood is not at all suitable for a growing elephant.
There had been many occasions in the past when they had been obliged to clear up some mess left by Charlie. They could remain uninvolved if they discovered somebody else was looking after an elephant - such an elephant would be none of their business - but there was a sense in which any elephant in Charlie’s keeping was their problem, or soon would become one.
And negotiating a future home for the friendly but ungainly beast requires all of the skills in courtesy and gentle teasing that Mma Ramotswe can summon.
Meanwhile, the detective agency owner has a family-related plea for financial assistance that Mma Makutsi mistrusts. Whether to believe the sad tale of a relative and donate accordingly requires further investigation, following the best principles of detection.
McCall Smith’s storytelling provides great charm as he unravels the experience and thinking of his rural but increasingly wise protagonists. A classic example is how Mma Ramotswe ponders the role of royalty, including the Queen and the Queen’s son, Prince Charles Mma Ramotswe and her allies practise the love of land and courtesy to each other in gently amusing ways that will eventually resolve the mysteries, potential crimes, and tensions of their lives. In a time of pandemic, there could be few more rewarding and soothing tales to read than How to Raise an Elephant.
There is something so uplifting about this book and McCall Smith has the ability to embrace the intimate in order to open far-reaching views.
