The Double Comfort Safari Club (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #11)

#1126
Title: The Double Comfort Safari Club (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #11)
Author: Alexander McCall Smith
Year: 2010
Publisher: Pantheon
Pages: 211

Although there's more literary subtlety to this one, I was more disappointed in it. I was ultimately puzzled by the title. "Double Comfort" suggested that the Safari Club might have something to do with Phuti Radiphuti's furniture store of the same name, but there is no connection. Nor are either of the camps called "Double Comfort," nor is there really either a safari or a club. In fact, little of the novel has anything to do with a safari or a safari club. At the plot level, it's more of a mishmash of little stories than anything else. Oh, and Phuti has a terrible accident, but it's treated with as little emotion or focus as... well, as these orphans who do so little and mean so little through so many installments.

The Good Husband of Zebra Drive (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #8)

#1018
Title: The Good Husband of Zebra Drive (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #8)
Author: Alexander McCall Smith 
Publisher: Pantheon
Year: 2007
213 pages

Better, with some actual character depth and psychology, but still reasonably superficial and with mysteries that seem almost beside the point. 

Blue Shoes and Happiness (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #7)

#1015
Title: Blue Shoes and Happiness (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #7)
Author: Alexander McCall Smith
Publisher: Anchor
Year: 2006/2007
256 pages
 
Though this preceded Fifty Shades of Grey, the talking shoes were too much like the horrible inner goddess of the latter, which is not Smith's fault, but does suggest that he failed to make this little fancy work. I found this somewhat better than the last installment but still rather lackluster. Okay as a read-and-forget novel, but nothing compelling.

In the Company of Cheerful Ladies (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #6)

#1014
Title: In the Company of Cheerful Ladies (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #6)
Author: Alexander McCall Smith
Publisher: Pantheon
Year: 2004/2005
233 pages

Not quite twee, but cloying, with tedious dialogue. The first incident is never resolved, and is never really investigated, even observationally. [What size and brand were the pants? Worn or new? Clean or dirty? That's a lot of information to ignore, and "Oh, they weren't Charlie's" is a limp resolution.  The author does address my earlier criticism that character-related issues disappear, but still only references a character's depression, for example, without this mattering at all to the story.

I'm still enjoying the descriptions of Botswana and Lisette Lecat's narration, but the series is growing stale.