The Good Husband of Zebra Drive is another satisfyingly charming installment in the adventures of Precious Ramatswe, a “traditionally built” African woman who inspires us with her joyful optimism, kindness and unpretentious wisdom as she solves mysteries in her No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. Various endearing familiar characters poke around at new careers, while others explore the validity of gender roles in a nation that has come only lately into the equality movement—all with humorous results. Alexander McCall Smith is wonderfully reliable with these gentle, perfect for summer vacation reading, novels that remind you that the world is not all the doom and gloom that we so often find in our more typical Western novels and media. When I read these uplifting stories about Precious, the sky is broad and blue again; I can smell the dust as her beloved little white minivan tumbles languorously across the plains; and I get a strange craving for tea at all hours of the day.