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Summary: A novel from the shimmering heat of Botswana
Review: Botswana is the setting for the first in a series of detective novels by Alexander McCall Smith featuring Mma Precious Ramotswe, a 'traditionally built' women 'blessed with expansive girth rather than height'. When Mma Ramotswe's father dies from lung disease - the result of long years spent working in South African mines - she uses her inheritance to open her own business, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. We follow a progression of cases including the man who had joined a Christian sect and then vanished, a wealthy Indian business man determined to reign in an errant daughter with 'modern ideas', a factory worker suspected of committing insurance fraud, and a boy who may have been kidnapped by a witch-doctor. These delightful vignettes introduce us to a wealth of beautifully detailed characters described with humour, compassion and an obvious love of Africa and its people. The gentle pace of this book perfectly matches the wisdom and insight of Mma Ramotswe as she drives her tiny white van through the shimmering heat of Botswana.
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Summary: Charming little stories!
Review: This isn't your typical woman detective novel. You won't find the complexities of Nevada Barr or Sue Grafton. Instead, you get a charming, overweight, lovable woman in Africa who solves common, every day cases. From the case of a woman who thinks her husband is messing around to the case of a missing child, Mma Ramotswa gets the jobs done.
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Summary: Like Comfort Food
Review: Sweet book, likable characters, great descriptions of the country. Mr. Smith is a good writer, telling his story by simply describing the day to day activities of a nice lady and her friends. Nicely done.
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Summary: Mma Ramotswe, P.I.
Review: It was fun to read about Mma Ramotswe and her investigations. Her use of common sense and observation was a delight, as was the unique setting in Botswana. Some of the cases that Mma solved were very funny (the woman whose husband was going to bars to pick up women; the man who stole the Mercedes); and some were sad (the boy that was kidnapped). I did not think that there was anything grand and ground-breaking here, but nevertheless a fun, light read.
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Summary: Short and silly
Review: I had to read this book because it was selected by my book club. Had I read it when I was 12 it might have been fun. The stories are written at a childish level and to market this as anything other than a Nancy Drew level book is astounding. Fortunately it is over and done with quickly.
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Summary: Reasoning with Ramotswe
Review: Precious Ramotswe inherits her father's cattle herd and sells it to start a new life. The options are limited for a woman in Botswana. She sets out on an uncharted course, opening the first private detective agency run by a woman. At least in Botswana. Mma Ramotswe is a commanding figure. She's stout, observant and reasons with precise logic. She would have made a great politician. Instead, she buys a house, an office, hires a secretary, installs a telephone - and sits down to wait for clients. It seems she's likely to shut it all down within a week. Instead, clients come calling. The result is a series of vignettes of her clients' problems and their resolutions. There are wandering husbands, rebellious teen-age children [are there any other kind?] and a missing, probably murdered child. Justice, although never mentioned by either McCall Smith or Mma Ramotswe, is an important element throughout these episodes. Justice and the value of being an African. McCall is knowledgeable about Southern Africa and its people. He imparts that understanding with marvelous skill. His Scottish background never intrudes or distracts. Except perhaps in one of Mma's more bizarre cases. The Scots treasure their reputation for producing fine doctors. One of Mma Ramotswe's mysteries is the occasionally inept doctor. It is clearly the highlight of this superb book. Mma Ramotswe, in establishing her unique agency, might be thought to have shed her personal life. After all, she had a brief, unhappy marriage. Men are to be watched, controlled, and manipulated in ways to prevent their wandering. Yet, as might be expected, there is a man in her town whose value transcends the image dominated by wandering husbands or lovers. He knows her worth and she his, but his stumbling proposal is rebuffed. There's no strain on the friendship, however, and it becomes clear the two will be useful to each other in the future. McCall Smith has accomplished something very special with this book. It cries out for a sequel [of which there are now four] for many reasons. It certainly shatters the long-standing image of the "detective" novel with its stacks of corpses, inept policemen and implausible characters. Mma Ramotswe is simply a capable woman without special powers. She focusses on the problem at hand, keeps distractions at bay and refuses to deal in absolutes. McCall Smith's powers of characterisation, locale and story place him far above the traditional examples of the "mystery" genre. He is compelling reading for anyone. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
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Summary: so boring
Review: I bought this book after reading all those fabulous reviews ,it was so boring that no matter how hard I forced myself I couldn't go on reading after the 40th page .You could feel that the writer was a novice from the start
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Summary: Fantastic Book Showing a lot About Botswanan Society
Review: I'm an American woman who has spent 12 years living in Africa, and traveled to almost every part of the African continent. When I bought this book, somehow, from the name, I was expecting it to be about some Chinese people living in London! Nevertheless, it was a delightful surprise when I found it was about a lady detective in Botswana. I found it interesting that the author is a Professor of Medical law, living in Scotland, but having been born and raised in Zimbabwe. He has published many varied books on many subjects. I think these are his "fun" books! I also think that part of the reason he has written these books is to show non-Africans what traditional African society is like, especially how it is managing to move into the modern age. By setting it in Botswana, he neatly sidesteps many of the problems found in other parts of Africa, and is able to concentrate both on his story, and on showing us how traditional Africans THINK and act. I found this especially interesting, having lived in several African cultures, myself. I also find the series very uplifting and rewarding to read, in addition to being a good story. I think some of the critical reviews are from people who have never lived or traveled in Africa, and they just don't realize how true-to-life are so many of the episodes-I do not find these books at ALL condescending toward blacks. On the contrary, they are a celebration of the traditional GOOD values found in black African culture (a nice change from what we usually see in the news). There were several things I especially enjoyed about this book. I don't particularly enjoy first-person, male-oriented police detective novels. This is about a woman detective, who had no more qualifications than you or I, but who just hung out a sign, and used her common sense. She ordered a text book from London, from which she learned some investigative procedures. She's very clever. The book is not written as a first person, blow-by-blow account. On the contrary, it is written in third person, and is more about her LIFE, going through her becoming a detective, the cases she meets along the way (which we watch her solve), and what we learn about the society as we go along. I would highly recommend this book to anyone planning to travel to any southern African country. It is a light, humorous book, from which you can learn a lot while enjoying a great story. I found it difficult to put down. I have now read the first two books in the series, and plan to order every single one. I can hardly wait until they arrive in the mail!
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Summary: Not All It Was Cracked Up To Be...
Review: This novel came highly recommended to me by a friend whose book judgement I trust, but I was halfway into it when I realized, "My god. This is African Encyclopedia Brown!" I like the way the author describes Africa, and it did have a sense of place, but it seemed like such a gossamer thin plotline throughout. Silly even. I always knew what would happen next. Liking a book is a very personal experience, but for me, "Poisonwood Bible," was a more substantive, enjoyable and dimensionalized view of Africa.
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Summary: Charming but, ultimately, sad
Review: Reading the blurb with biographical details about author Alexander McCall Smith, it is obvious that he is an extraordinary man. Still, it is a feat that an upper educated Englishman can so clearly inhabit the persona of a poorly educated black woman in Botswana. Readers who are unfamiliar with that country will come away with a much more thorough understanding of place after reading THE NO. 1 LADIES' DETECTIVE AGENCY. Smith's heroine is a middle-aged black woman who cleverly solves the mysteries that visit her town. She uses common sense and shrewd observation to put two and two together and come up with four when others are not even counting. As such, the individual vignettes are deeply satisfying. There is a poignancy to Smith's descriptions, however, of how difficult life is in that corner of Africa, of how its people are so accustomed to their hard lives, and how they take pleasure in such small things. Other issues, more terrible issues, are alluded to in the book. Yet some of these secrets are not completely explored, secrets about slavery and voodoo and human sacrifice. Certainly, discourse on these problems would have ruined the pacing of the separate stories, but it was troubling to see them hinted at nonetheless. Alexander McCall Smith is an author of immense talent.
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