Reviewed by ANITA LATIMER Fans of the No.1 Ladies Detec tive Agency series by

Alexander McCall Smith will love this heartwarming book.

Once again, Precious Ramotswe unravels local puzzlements and rights wrongs in a sensitive, intuitive way. The first challenge presents itself in the form of a cobra loose in her office. Other cases involve the blackmail of a cook, the dishonesty of a physician, and the superstitious fear and unease at a local game reserve, all of which are resolved with a minimum of controversy by the end of the book.

All the usual characters are present and present problems of their own. Grace Makutsi, assistant detective, fears that her fianc may think she is a feminist and thus won't marry her. Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni, honorable mechanic and proprietor of Flokweng Rd. Speedy Motors, deals patiently with his two apprentices and their inferior work ethics. Mma. Potokwame continues to lure him into doing her chores through promise of the fruit cake that he cannot resist.

Here again is the countryside of Botswana with its "traditional houses with comfortable windows like eyes for the building." Here, too are the acacia trees and the sausage fruit tree, dangerous to sit under because its fruit can fall and crack a skull. Inside the houses, geckos may be observed hanging upside down from the ceiling by their little suction cup feet, or wakeful residents in the wee hours may hear the scuttle of mice in the rafters.

A touching nostalgia fills this book, a longing for people, places, and times past. Yet things are changing. The traditional home with its pressed mud floor is dying out in favor of more modern houses. More cars crowd the roadways. Some women are abandoning traditional roles and embracing a more liberated view. An advice columnist dispenses solutions to life's quandaries. Even Mma. Romatswe, a woman of "traditional build," responds to hints and goes on a diet.

The wry humor is still present. For instance, after the cobra is removed from her office, Mma. Romotswe comments: "Snakes and men. These were the two things sent to try women."

However, a greater melancholy is present in this book than in previous books. Early on, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni comments regarding winning a football game that "Anybody can lose . . . you need to remember that each time you win . . . and anybody can cry, even a man."

Regarding the blue shoes of the title, Mma. Romotswe comments that "Happiness was an elusive thing. It had something to do with having beautiful shoes, sometimes, but it was about so much else. About a country. About a people."

And perhaps most poignant of all, she wishes: "If only more people knew that there was more to Africa than all the problems they saw. They could love us, too, as we love them." Precious Ramotswe and the novels of Alexander McCall Smith have led us to do just that.