For fans of this author and his series, reading another instalment is like coming home and putting on an old sweatshirt at the end of a long and tiring workday. The languorous pace and comfort of familiarity kicks in immediately, along with the usual philosophical musings about the restorative nature of a cup of tea and such ponderings as how to approach forgiveness with grace. McCall Smith uses gentle humour to address serious life lessons.
Precious Ramotswe and Grace Makutsi have now been working together so long in this 17th instalment, offering their wisdom to the community in Gaborone, that there is a lot to recap in case someone is new to the series. The author does this skilfully, giving necessary background information that is necessary for newbies to this long running series, without making it cumbersome and boring for serious fans who have read them all. So I give the author kudos for doing that well. However, I didn’t find the mystery topics very intriguing this time.
A Canadian woman is looking to rediscover her childhood in Botswana and someone else close to Mma Ramotswe needs help unravelling from a dangerous pyramid scheme. Precious and Grace have other adventures and misadventures, one involving a puff adder (a traditionally built snake!), but in general the series is becoming much more ‘reflective’ than ‘detective’ which is too bad because its genius was always being able to be both of those in equal measures.
Joanne's Reading Blog 
Thanks for this lovely review… I have loved this series and should get a hold of the more recent books!