Rating: 
Summary: Buy 10 copies each and get Mma Ramotswe to No.1
Review: Some books get to the No.1 slot on Amazon - this is one that OUGHT to get there - if enough of you buy 10 copies each to give to all your friends and family this Christmas, it is in with a chance - No.91 on the list is simply far too low. Mma Ramotswe and the other many equally delightful people of Botswana that McCall Smith has created in this simply idyllic series (even Laura Bush loves the series I gather), is the perfect enjoyable, innocent, heroic, gentle and always hilariously funny reading that everyone needs in these deeply troubled times. This is THE perfect Christmas present for just about everyone in the family - my wife and I are ladelling out copies like sweets this year - and each one will give a lifetime of fun. Not only that but success and fame could not have happened to a nicer person than McCall Smith himself - he is simply one of the nicest, kindest and most consistently hysterically funny authors you will ever meet, and booksellers world wide are now eagerly awaiting his next novels in the Botswana series, to pack out their stores and to have an author evening like no other. This is magical stuff, folks - make us all happy, buy 10 copies each to introduce them to friends and family, buy 10 boxes of the boxed set each for those who will enjoy all of them and get this most deserving of authors to Amazon No.1 by Christmas. Christopher Catherwood, author of CHRISTIANS MUSLIMS AND ISLAMIC RAGE (Zondervan, 2003) and THE BALKANS IN WORLD WAR TWO (Palgrave, 2003)
Rating:
Summary: Number One Heroine; Fascinating Setting
Review: This is an unpretentious book, in size and scope, but its entertainment value is immense. There are no car chases or shoot-outs; no great earth-shattering truths are revealed. The heroine, Smith's "Number One Lady Detective," is in fact Batswana's ONLY lady detective. But she and those she deals with in her brand-new profession--her friends, clients and victims--were enough to keep me turning the pages. Precious Ramotswe is a delight. She is plump, shrewd and opinionated, as at home in her village and her country as Tony Hillerman's Jim Chee is on his reservation. She solves her little mysteries with a logic, dogged resourcefulness and sense of humor that are quietly brilliant. Smith's prose is well-crafted, spare and subtle; he doesn't beat a reader over the head with Africa and its history, but lets us witness both the uniqueness and the universality of Precious' small-town, open-country world through her very human eyes. I'm hooked; I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series.Susan O'Neill, Author: Don't Mean Nothing: Short Stories of Viet Nam
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Summary: Not just a great detective book--a great book, period!
Review: I came to this book after having had many, many people recommend it to me. When I get that kind of Invasion-of-the-Body-Snatchers thumbs-up, I tend to get stubborn, suspecting a mass-marketing push of some sort. The more fool me. In this case, the price for my stubbornness definitely came off my own hide.
Fortunately, my niece's plane was late to land a couple of weeks ago, so I picked this up at the airport bookstore and started to read it. I was immediately hooked.
As you can read above, this amazing volume follows the exploits of Mma Precious Ramotswe, Botswana's first female detective. We watch her set up her office, solve her first few cases, and eventually unlock a mystery that peers into the dark (and banal) heart of human evil. But to call this a detective novel is almost a disservice to Mr. Smith's wonderful book. Mysteries, in general, fall into a very few, well-established sub-genres: the Cozy, the Hardboiled Detective, the Police Procedural, the Thriller. Every one of these types has a very clear set of standard gimmicks--tropes--that let you know what's going on. Even books that mix genres (like Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden novels which mix fantasy with hardboiled, or Laura Joh Rowland's Sano Ichiro series and Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta books, both of which tend to shift from procedural to thriller) tend to show great respect for the genre. But this book seems to ignore the traditional forms of the detective novel altogether. It is, first and formost, a novel, a work of literary fiction. Its main subject is the soul of the people of Botswana, as viewed through the lens of Mma Ramotswe herself. Yes, she solves mysteries. But it is more in the fashion of Solomon or Judge Ooka than Sherlock Holmes or Sam Spade. She is a master of the human soul. She understands people, and why they do the silly things they do, and so she inevitably manages to uncover the answers to questions that others can't seem to solve.
Part of the beauty of the book is that Smith's deceptively simple storytelling style all but forces the reader to fall in love with Precious. She is so admirable, so endearing that you have no choice. You know she's going to solve the case, and that, as long as she is working on the problem, everything's going to be all right. By way of example--and I'm not going to give away too much here--about half way through the book, an incident occurs that is, on many levels, quite horrific. Smith handles the scene beautifully, simply and terrifyingly. It is the sort of scene that has broken my suspension of disbelief in several previous thrillers. Yet, because of Smith's style and Mma Ramotswe's charm and perseverance, I felt enough trust to continue on. That trust was rewarded. The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency solved the case in most satisfactory fashion.
For me, knowing of southern Africa mostly through novels and horrific news reports, it was a joy to get to know Botswana on so personal and believable a level.
Rating: 
Summary: just ok
Review: This book was just okay. Very slow moving, not riveting or fast-paced at all. Good for a slow day on the porch. It will not keep you up at night page-turning that's for sure. The main storyline was predictable. The good thing was that it was short.
Rating:
Summary: What a great introduction to Mma Ramotswe and Botswana
Review: The first book of the series started slowly because I expected a conventional mystery (Mma Ramotswe is a detective, after all). Instead, these are gentle plots that reveal characters and the modern story of Africa. The writing and, for me, unfamiliar rubrics of daily conversation in Botswana soon completely captivated me. These three novels hang together nicely and they do not seem in any sense repetitive. Characters develop and change as the series moves along. The only thing many readers say as they close the cover of the last of the three books (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, Tears of the Giraffe, and Morality for Beautiful Girls) in this set is, "More! More!" The set will be a great Christmas present for a number of the readers on my list.
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Summary: Simply wonderful stories and evocative descriptions
Review: It took a few weeks for me really to get into this book. For me, it started slowly, but then I began to love the descriptions of Africa as much as the gentle mysteries that move this book along. The best proof of the book's general appeal is that I have given away at least a half dozen copies and have received warm thanks from everyone. It is a marvelous book and its episodic aspect makes it well suited to reading aloud.
Rating: 
Summary: I enjoyed it greatly
Review: Congratulations to Ms Smith. A fun read. Reminded me of my own Beauford Sloan Mystery series. Raymond Austin
Television director of The Saint, The Avengers, Hawaii Five-O, Magnum, P.I., Hart to Hart, Jag, etc.
And author of "The Eagle Heist" and "Dead Again"
Rating:
Summary: No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
Review: I left Africa at the age of 6, never to return. Until I read this book, my memories were few and far between. What a special thrill then, for the first time in fifty years, to taste fresh sugar cane in my mouth, thanks to Alexander McCall Smith's loving evocation. Sights, long forgotten, the smell of Africa came flooding back, as I raced through the pages of this book. In terms of detective fiction, I am no virgin. Wilkie Collins, Conan Doyle, Christie, Chandler, Hammett, Rankin, Paretsky, Deaver, Cruz Smith et al crowd bulging bookshelves all around the house. How refreshing it was to discover a new and subtle voice. These pages are not littered with corpses, gratuitous violence, car chases or soft pornography. In a lecture last week, I heard Alan Plater say, that in all his years, he had never seen a fight, let alone a crime. Why should he then litter his screen plays with events of which he, and I suspect most of the rest us, had no experience? If you want to experience a vicarious thrill, don't look for it here. There is more than enough mystery in the normal run of life. Precious Ramotswe can get the answers to the questions she needs to ask without the use of a gun or a blackjack. Heroes and heroines don't have to be misfits on the edge. They don't have to be perfect. They can have very simple dreams, yet their stories can still be riveting. It says something about this book that, without all the usual suspects, I still could not put it down until I had finished and that I raced out to buy 'Tears of the Giraffe' as soon as I had.
Rating: 
Summary: quirky
Review: Not your typical mystery. Not worth all the hype
Rating:
Summary: Enchanting!
Review: Alexander McCall Smith's novel The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, set in Botswana is a thrill to read. The characters capture your heart, especially the lady detective, Precious Ramotswe. The history of her life growing up in Botswana, and that of her father are as engaging as the mysteries she solves. A brave and cunning woman, Mma Ramotswe and her adventures make for a great read. This book has found a place on my 'favorites' shelf. I highly recommend this delightful book!
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