Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...
 It's About People September 26, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I loved the Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency series when it first appeared, but like so many things in life, as I read further entries in the series, they grew progressively less enchanting. Perfectly fun and readable, but somewhat familiar and no longer greatly anticipated, until I stopped after the fifth. Needing something fairly simple for short a car ride, I picked up the audio version of this eighth in the series, and revisited the familiar characters and their beloved Botswana.
This installment features three separate cases for the detective agency, all of which underscore the book's (and series') main theme: personal relationships. Mma. Ramotswe is asked by a distant relative to investigate the mysterious deaths of three patients at the hospital he works at. Mma. Makutsi is assigned a case in which the owner of a printing company suspects one of their employees of theft. Finally, Rra.Matekoni even gets in the act, and takes up a case which involves tailing a suspected wayward husband.
However, these cases act more as subplots than anything else, as the real focus is on the family of main characters. There's Mma. Makutsi's impending marriage and financial security, which leads her to question the need for her job. There's Rra. Matekoni's insecurity about his marriage to Mma. Ramotswe. There's even apprentice Charley, seeking to leave the garage to embark on grand schemes of his own. Smith seems a lot more interested in how close friends and family relate to each other and allow for periods of growth and change, as well as the benefits and pitfalls of trusting one another. It's a little striking then, that Mma. Ramotswe's children barely show up at all.
Nonetheless, the personal interactions are well-drawn and handled with Smith's usual gentle touch, and fans of the series will be pleased by them. However, the "crime" sections are rather forgettable. The hospital case is based on a famous disproven urban legend from South Africa, and thus rather predictable. The theft case is completely underwhelming and barely resolved. And the adultery case is marred by Rra. Matakoni's abandoning his methodical nature, which makes the whole enterprise somewhat silly. On the whole, the book feels somewhat flat and tired, and I'm reminded why I stopped reading the series.
 fantastic read, captures Botswana in a charming way August 21, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Having visited Botswana I can truly say this book, though a little more charming in places than reality, is a good representation of the people, their majesty and the beauty of the country. It is a gentle read and enjoyable in that it is the first in a great series. Its evident popularity is well deserved.
Back to the old familiar! June 16, 2008
I have been a big fan of AMS Botswana series ever since the first book, and have read them all in order. I shall probably continue to do so, simply because I have become addicted to their feel-good nature and total lack of intellectual challenge. However I have to say that as the series progresses they no longer offer anything new, although Grace Makutsi makes me howl with laughter.
I was going to say that this book makes a great holiday read, though having taken days to get through it on my recent holiday to Turkey I'm going to revise that. My progress was slowed by the fact that the events around the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency this time round failed to grab my attention quite as much as people-watching on the beach or nattering by the pool, so I would instead recommend this latest for a dreary winter's night when to be reminded of sunshine, warmth and community will be a real tonic.
 Aaaaaahhhh! Like a mug of good red bush tea! March 25, 2008
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
It is nice to see that AMS is back in his stride vis a vis the No1 Ladies Detective Agency! The last couple of the books of this series-though enjoyable as always!-have not been quite as "traditionally built" as the first few of the series, as I say in my review of "Blue Shoes and Happiness". For those who say the pace is too slow, I understand, but that is Africa...Maddening for the first while one is there and then sorely missed and grieved when one is not. For those who say the plots are predicatable, well, yes, I suppose but, to me, this is part of AMS's "genius" because what he is describing is just...LIFE. Life in Botswana, to be sure, and of a rather unusual person for her enviroment, but life noetheless. How many times have you realized that, really, your life is absolutely, marevellously exciting....to YOU, but upon reflection, is it really so to other people? Well, possibly not. But that's life! And there is something rather comforting in knowing the end of the story before one reads it sometimes. So, settle in with a cup of good red bush tea (or your equivalent) and ENJOY!
Amusing and thought-provoking - despite a degree of predictablity March 18, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Slow paced, often predictable, repetitive, based in an imaginary, utopian version of a very small country. Not really crime fiction and certainly not thrillers. So why do I like the No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency so much?
I read "The Good Husband of Zebra Drive", having realised, on buying the recently published next book in the series, and issued, that I had missed it out. My main quibble is that the denouement of this episode was itself very predictable, based I am sure on an "urban myth" or something similar - and while elements of the storyline are very predictable, I had not previously found the crux of the ending to be.
Professor McCall Smith writes unashamedly feel-good books, with a slow, measured pace and lightness of touch that makes you feel that Mma Ramotswe is leading you by the hand. The baddies, such as they are, are never really bad, and the conflicts around which the stories are based are ones between basically good people with everyday, minor flaws. I think that the intentional elements of predictability are supposed to reflect the sparsely inhabited place they are set, and the people who live there, who have lived their all their lives and are content to die there too as their ancestors did before them. Those of us who live in the West rather than in this fictional Botswana are perhaps being invited by McCall Smith to consider that our frenetic lifestyles are self-inflicted and by no means a guarantor of greater happiness.
McCall Smith was a professor of medical law and clearly has great interest in philosophy and ethics. The books are readers in practical philosophy, a commentary on the differences between man and woman and young and old, a call to live a calmer life and to treat one's fellow human being a little better. And also, despite the predictable bits, they are amusing, thought-provoking and a cracking good read.
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