The Great Hippopotamus Hotel, by Alexander McCall Smith

Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi of Botswana’s No 1 Ladies Detective Agency are investigating the undermining of a once-popular hotel. It seems that an old enemy may be behind the troubles, but - as the great detective educator Clovis Anderson says – one should never declare victory prematurely. The thin plot is a vehicle for a series of homilies and a celebration of the land and people of Botswana. Values of kindness, respect and honesty underpin these tales set in a country where the modern world is making a late intrusion on traditions. But they are getting to be repetitive and bear a faint ring of an old man’s railing against the modern world.

Anita de Monte laughs last, by Xochitl Gonzales

In 1985, just as her career was taking off, artist Anita de Monti fell to her death from her famous sculptor husband’s 30th floor apartment. Their dysfunctional relationship was over, so did she jump or was she pushed? In the late 90s, aspiring art historian Raquel Toro has begun a relationship with an emerging artist who is a trust fund baby. Their parallel stories encompass race, class, wealth and privilege in the US art world and the wider world, also manipulation, gaslighting, coercive control and domestic violence. Chapters alternate between Anita and Raquel’s stories, the latter’s told in linear time while Anita goes back in time to explain the progression of her problematic relationship and provide at least a modicum of understanding of why she kept on with it despite all the red flags. From about half way through the book the occasional chapter goes to Jack Martin, Anita’s husband. This is jarring at first – why should he get a voice in this story? But they do serve to illuminate the heinous nature of his actions, even after her death, in erasing her from the art world as well as the actual world. Anita’s chapters continue after her death, from the spirit world where her ability to connect to the human world depends on the vitality of her work. A sense of dread builds as Raquel goes down a similar relationship path to Anita and the worry is the outcome could be the same.