The Great Hippopotamus Hotel

Smith's breezy latest outing for Botswanan sleuths Precious Ramotswe and Grace Makutsi (after From a Far and Lovely Country) finds the pair digging into the operations of a struggling hotel. While Mma Ramotswe is shopping for socks one afternoon, a man named Quick Babusi approaches her with an inquiry: the well-regarded Great Hippopotamus Hotel, which Babusi manages, has recently fallen into disrepair, with the kitchen causing a spate of inexplicable food poisonings and guest rooms becoming overrun with snakes and scorpions. Mma Ramotswe taps Mma Makutsi and her best friend, Mma Potokwani, to help with the case, and together, they uncover a conspiracy targeting the hotel's reputation. Meanwhile, a wealthy client asks Mma Ramotswe's mechanic husband, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni, to procure him a new South African sports car, which Matekoni fears the man will use to facilitate an affair. As always, the sleuthing takes a backseat to Mma Ramotswe and company's dryly funny musings (many of them focused on middle-aged men's difficulties with aging) and Smith's evocative descriptions of life in Gaborone. Series fans will get just what they came for. (Oct.)