No1 Ladies' Detective Agency ~ Alexander McCall Smith

Synopsis

Wayward daughters. Missing Husbands. Philandering partners. Curious conmen. If you’ve got a problem, and no one else can help you, then pay a visit to Precious Ramotswe, Botswana’s only – and finest – female private detective. Her methods may not be conventional, and her manner not exactly Miss Marple, but she’s got warmth, wit and canny intuition on her side, not to mention Mr J.L.B. Maketoni, the charming proprietor of Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors. And Precious is going to need them all as she sets out on the trail of a missing child, a case that tumbles our heroine into a hotbed of strange situations and more than a little danger …Delightfully different, THE NO.1 LADIES’ DETECTIVE AGENCY offers a captivating glimpse of an unusual world.

Just finished this book the other day, and I thought I’d leave a quick review. First off if you are hoping for a proper detective novel, then this is probably not the book for you, as there is no major mystery to be found. In fact all Mma Ramotswe, investigations are mostly very simple and are solved with a fair amount of ease and gives the book an episodic nature. But for me the point of the book was the setting and the characters you meet, through Mma Ramotswe’s eyes, one of whom Mr J.L.B. Matekoni stands out, the local mechanic and Mma’s helper and hopeful suitor, who know pretty much everyone and refers to them by what car repairs they have had. It makes a great lunch time� read due to it’s easy story and flow. And as the work colleague, who was sat opposite one lunchtime earlier this week. Who only just avoided being sprayed by my lunch, the book contains one of the funniest paragraphs, I have ever read!

“Now constipation was quite a different matter. It would be dreadful for the whole world to know about troubles of that nature. She felt terribly sorry for people who suffered from constipation, and she knew that there were many who did. There were probably enough of them to form a political party – with a chance of government perhaps – but what would such a party do if it was in power? Nothing she imagined. It would try to pass legislation, but would fail.“

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