Rating: 
Summary: Another great visit with Mma Ramotswe & Company....
Review: I loved every minute of the third book in THE NO. 1 LADIES' DETECTIVE AGENCY series. Precious Ramotswe is solving problems, including some of her own, moving to a new location and handling life as it comes to her. There are three 'cases' in this book, but they're pretty much secondary to the true story of life in Mma Ramotswe's beloved hometown of Gaborone, Botswana. Mma Ramotswe's secretary - now assistant - Mma Makutsi gets to work on a case in this book...and she handles other chores as well, all with apparent ease as expected from someone who scored 97% at the Botswana Secretarial College. A word of advice: read the books in order of publication. You'll be glad you did. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: Sit Back, Relax, Enjoy ANOTHER WONDERFUL BOOK!!
Review: Alexander McCall Smith has written over 50 books from specialized works as The Criminal Law of Botswana, Forensic
Aspects of Sleep to Children's books. He currently is a Professor of Medical Law at Edinburgh University Morality For Beautiful Girls
Life has become complicated for Precious Ramotswe, proprietor of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency in Bostwana. She has a great deal to think about. Mr. J.L.B.Matekoni, Mma Ramotswe's fiance and the owner of Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors, has been acting strangely of late. He is unusually listless and he seems uninterested either in his business or in her. What can be wrong with him? Precious determines her man is suffering from DEPRESSION! He too has lot's on his mind! Being the only Detective Agency in town, and even though her business continues to grow, Mma Ramotswe's detective agency is not exactly prospering. But she has a lot of clients all demanding her services, and she has the repair shop to worry about This is where Ramotswe's assistant, Mma Makutsi, (who happened to achieve the highest score on record at her vocational school with a 97%!) shines and proves to be an invaluable asset. She not only becomes the acting manager of Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors, but she even takes on a lucrative case of her own. While Makutsi investigates the moral character of four contestants in the Miss Beauty and Integrity Contest, Mma Ramotswe looks into a possible poisoning for an important "Government Man".
Mma Ramotswe's sweet nature, unerring instincts and inherent common sense make her both a wonderful friend and a
superb detective. Mma Makutsi comes into her own in this novel, as she shows herself to be both an excellent investigator
and a shrewd manager. Another winning read from the author with excellent and interesting character development as both the characters and the reader become involved with the plot. Relax and enjoy another entry in this wonderful series! I thoroughly enjoyed this book for it's unique and likable characters and exotic setting. The uniqueness of the mysteries
reflect a simpler lifestyle than many of us live and especially expect in a "mystery". TOTAL ENJOYMENT!
John Row
Rating: 
Summary: delightful
Review: Another good book, not quite as good as some of the others, but still a pleasant read. Precious Ramotswe is busy. She is moving her detetective office into her fiance's business to help cut costs as her detective agency is not doing as well, financially, as she would like. Her fiance is not feeling well and she is trying to help him plus take care of a couple of orphans and solve her cases. Her character is one of warmth, kindness, generosity and strength. One of the things that I like about these books is that I get a glimpse of what life is like in Botswana, Africa.
Rating:
Summary: More From Precious Ramotswe
Review: As the third in the No. 1 Ladies Detective series, "Morality for Beautiful Girls," continues along the same line as the first two books. Precious Ramotswe finds herself involved in a case for a "government" man and spends most of the book away from those that she adores. Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni leaves his repair shop for a stint at the orphange to cure his depression. Mma Ramotswe's assistant is promoted to Asst. Mgr of the repair shop and takes on a case for the detective agency that leads her to discover the truth about beauty. All wrapped up at the end another moral lesson is learned from these wonderful characters. Alexander McCall Smith remains true to his original character concepts and deepens the readers understanding as to what makes them tick. He tells us another fable with a good moral to live by and leads us onto the next in the series. These books are easy, fun reads that blend light mystery with good judgement and relate an excellent lesson. I am looking forward to the next journey of Mma Ramotswe and her gang.
Rating:
Summary: More From Precious Ramotswe
Review: As the third in the No. 1 Ladies Detective series, "Morality for Beautiful Girls," continues along the same line as the first two books. Precious Ramotswe finds herself involved in a case for a "government" man and spends most of the book away from those that she adores. Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni leaves his repair shop for a stint at the orphange to cure his depression. Mma Ramotswe's assistant is promoted to Asst. Mgr of the repair shop and takes on a case for the detective agency that leads her to discover the truth about beauty. All wrapped up at the end another moral lesson is learned from these wonderful characters. Alexander McCall Smith remains true to his original character concepts and deepens the readers understanding as to what makes them tick. He tells us another fable with a good moral to live by and leads us onto the next in the series. These books are easy, fun reads that blend light mystery with good judgement and relate an excellent lesson. I am looking forward to the next journey of Mma Ramotswe and her gang.
Rating: 
Summary: Is it Africa? Doesn't feel like it.
Review: Change the names to Sister Henrietta, Sister Marian, abd Brother Nathan, can you tell this is Africa? Botswana, a nation in Africa where 40% have Aids virus? These stories have no feel of Africa that I know. They feel phony through and through. Whats that about depression, it that a paid ad for Prozac? The triviality of the stories makes it further seem that Africans are not so very clever as the rest of us. Oh how wonderfully simple these Africans are!
Rating:
Summary: Publisher pressure on author is showing
Review: Disappointing and worrisome. Clearly this author has been writing under the publishing gun. I loved the first two books. (But the second, "Tears of the Giraffe," had a glaring editorial error involving the caption of a newspaper photograph--at first the text makes it clear that the caption is "illegible," bug-eaten; so I figured that would provide plot momentum for our erstwhile detective to find out the identities of those in the photo; apparently that potential plotline was dropped in a later manuscript draft, and soon, much to our surprise, the next time the photo appears, the caption is miraculously intact in all its details.)
In this 3rd volume in the series, even the casual reader will notice the simplest of editorial errors: For example, in one storyline, lunch is first said to occur at 12, then 1 pm, then 2 pm; breakneck (and tremendously incomplete and unsatisfying) wrap-up of a few -- but not all -- major plotlines; extremely unrealistic introduction of depression theme (person, once ideal, falls victim to deepest depression seemingly within a week or two -- apparently the author was convinced midstream to introduce the topic of clinical depression)... Well, I could go on. I'm sorry to see the evidence of author strain in this initially darling and moving series.
Rating:
Summary: This cup of bush tea is half empty
Review: I am a huge fan of Alexander McCall Smith and I find the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series overall to be extremely heartfelt and compelling. The characters are so unique and each chapter seems to bring a smile to my face. No sex. No violence. No profanity. Yet I find myself wanting more. How amazing. Yet Morality for Beautiful Girls is a noticeably weaker effort than the first two. The title is bland and hard to remember. You get well past page 100 before the beauty contest contestants are even introduced and there is only one chapter involving the poisoning case early on. So there isn't much detecting going on. Honestly, there isn't much of anything going on and the reader almost becomes as depressed as a certain major character, waiting for something, anything to happen. To me, Smith stumbles this out. Not in a major way, but after the joy of the first two Precious tales, this time around things seem a bit too dark in Botswana and some of the joy seems to be missing.
Rating:
Summary: Losing our way
Review: I am slightly concerned ... this has been to date such a charming series right up there with such classics as Wind in the Willows. But alas as series continue, especially ones so well received as the life and times of Precious Ramotswe, the author seems to come to believe it is his story. In this particular case we find Precious discussing such unrelated things as the relevance of existentialism, the theories of David Leaky, women's rights, yada yada yada. Mr. Smith, if you out there more focus on Ramotswe and the trials and travails of the the Dective Agency and Speedy Motors and less as a vehicle for better world understanding. sigh :(
Rating:
Summary: Another wonderful entry in the series.
Review: I continue to be so impressed and moved by this series that I am about ready to pack and buy a one-way ticket to Botswana. McCall's writing is so deceptively simple but he packs so much meaning ,depth and lyricism into the most simple of sentences,much like his heroine, Precious Ramotswe.Mma. Ramotswe just bowls me over with he kindness, strength and humanity. The supporting characters are also first-rate, including Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni and Mma. Grace Makutsi. This series is getting better and better with each installment. Highly recommended for mystery lovers and everyonewho loves good fiction. Superb.
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