Morality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith
#62 in my book challenge for the year was Morality for Beautiful Girls, the third book in Smith’s African detective series. I enjoyed this book far more than I did #2, Tears of the Giraffe. Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni finally became less than perfect, the apprentices became less worthless, and Mma Makutski very quietly became more complex. There were three mysteries: a boy found in the desert, a possible poisoning, and an investigation of the integrity of beauty pageant candidates. All three were used as backstory to the much more interesting development of the series’ characters. One mystery was left purposely unresolved, another was resolved unexpectedly, and the third was predictable, but so charming in its execution and resolution that I can’t complain. This book was a more worthy follow up to the first book. While it still had some of the sexism and romanticisation of the simplistic that I disliked in the second book, it was a more balanced and thus enjoyable story.