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Title: The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith, Alexander McCall Smith, R. A. McCall Smith ISBN: 1-58547-328-6 Publisher: Center Point Pub Pub. Date: July, 2003 Format: Library Binding Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.23 (154 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Demystifying Detection on the Edge of the Kalahari
Comment: I can think of no better book for someone to read as their introduction to detective fiction. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency combines heart-warming values, love, a spunky female protagonist, African wildlife and every day problems into a delightful social commentary on the dangers and foibles of vanity and wealth. Along the way, there are little problems to be solved, little in terms of Sherlock Holmes perhaps, but not so little in terms of the lives of the people in Botswana.
The structure of the book is a little unusual for detective fiction. The main focus is on the life of Mma Precious Ramotswe, a round women in her late thirties with a failed marriage behind her, who starts a storefront detective agency with the money her father left her when he died. Botswana doesn't have any other private detectives, and women usually have circumscribed roles in the society. But Precious knows that women notice more than men, and should make good detectives. Her father had hoped, instead, that she would buy an existing business. Like most new business people, she worries about going broke. She knows that first impressions count, so she buys and spruces up a building . . . and hires a secretary she cannot afford. In the first month, the secretary's salary comes to more than Precious' income.
But as time passes, clients come to Precious with their problems. Many are related to concerns about the fidelity of a husband. Two involve missing persons. Another looks at a teenage rebellion. One seems like a psychiatric problem -- a doctor who alternates between being brilliant and incompetent. These cases become like short stories built inside the novel. Each story has a particularly rich African heritage . . . as does the flashback into her father's life as a miner. Precious is a common sense detective. She doesn't use advanced technology. She hasn't had any formal training. But she's dogged and willing to learn, and has an imaginative way of getting to the truth.
By her sex, her locale and her heritage, Precious is an underdog. But she's an underdog who was raised with lots of love, and knows a good person when she sees one. By the African standards of her neighbors, she's relatively well-to-do . . . but life is a struggle because of attitudes towards women. Anyone who feels that women can do anything they set their minds to will be cheering Precious on.
While this book may not sound cerebral, several of the mysteries (especially the man who disappeared while going to church, the strange doctor and the missing boy) have very sophisticated plot twists and confrontations with key witnesses that remind me of the best of the Perry Mason mysteries . . . except they are set in Botswana.
In the background, there's an emerging love interest between precious and Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni (who keeps her van running smoothly and helps in some of the mysteries) that spices up the book.
Anyone who reads this book with an open heart and mind will want to continue with the series.
As I finished this book, I found myself thinking about what views we all share today in the United States about what people can and cannot do that are false in reality. Every time I see "disabled" athletes performing tasks that I would never dare to do, I realize that our limitations are in our minds. Dare to do what you were born to do! And lead with a loving heart.
Rating: 5
Summary: A superb, highly enjoyable and delightful book
Comment: This is a story of a strong pioneering African woman who becomes a detective. Not unlike method actors Mr. McCall Smith has tried, successfully, to write a book through an African eye. What might be mistaken as simplicity in his writing is, to my opinion, an understanding of how people think and behave, of their priorities and beliefs. Colorful and decent characters, clever cases to be solved by the delightful Mrs. Ramotswe and a bit of romance make this book one of the best I've read this year.
Rating: 2
Summary: nothing to it
Comment: Very light reading. I did not draw me in. So many better books out there.
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Title: Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith ISBN: 1400031354 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 03 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: Morality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith ISBN: 1400031362 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 12 November, 2002 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: The Kalahari Typing School for Men : More from the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith ISBN: 037542217X Publisher: Pantheon Books Pub. Date: 29 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown ISBN: 0385504209 Publisher: Doubleday Pub. Date: 18 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd ISBN: 0142001740 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 28 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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