I'm no fan of mystery, crime or detective books - the bore me, generally, though I loved Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher books in high school and Agatha Christie's Ten Little Niggers gave me chills (since renamed And Then There Were None, for obvious reasons - but I've got an old edition).The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency is a real gem, however. I absolutely loved it. Wise, funny, intelligent, insightful and blushing with vigour and a heartfelt love of Africa, I'm not in the least surprised this series - of which this is the first book - has done so well.Set in Botswana, it features thirty-five year old Mma Ramotswe, a cunning, content and large (in the "traditional" way) woman who, after her father dies leaving her many head of cattle, sells up and opens a detective agency. Hired to track missing husbands, cheating husbands and thieving husbands, as well as daughters, sons and witch doctors, Precious Ramostwe has her hands full. Woven amongst the cases are beautiful descriptions of the land, insights into African culture in all its myriad forms, the life of her father, a miner in South Africa, and her own disastrous marriage which ended many years ago, and a sweet offer of love from one of her best friends, a successful mechanic.What is especially intriguing about this book, for me, is its seemingly chaotic structure. It follows no neat format, employs chapters within chapters, retells the past without incorporating it into the plot, shifts perspective between characters (though Mma Ramotswe has the focal perspective) whenever desired, and could sometimes be mistaken for short stories. And it all works, superbly so. It's new and refreshing and extremely well written, every word and sentence and paragraph there for a reason, the small plotlines and overarching plot spun out with perfect timing and deft handling. It is serious and wise and thoughtful when it needs to be, and light and ironic at other times. I kept thinking "this'd make a great tv show!" only to find that the BBC have already jumped on that bandwagon - shame it hasn't made it to Canada.Mma Ramotswe is a fantastic protagonist, a woman who stands up for herself and loves Africa despite its problems. I'm always interested in reading books set in Africa - the continent fascinates and intrigues me, its beauty draws me, and its the closest place to Australia, in terms of landscape and climate, that there is, which makes me feel like it's a kindred spirit. There are many places there that I would love to visit.I could go on for ages highlighting all the great things in this book - I have absolutely nothing negative to say or complain about, and it was wonderful to read a book with proper English spelling intact (except, at one point, the word "humour", which was very odd). The proof-readers should be careful about looking for wrong dialogue punctuation though - end quotation marks before a paragraph break within someone's speech. I'm seeing it occur in almost all the books I've been reading lately, it's very shoddy.
I had heard of this series, and in the mood for a light mystery and fond of those that use settings that most American readers aren't familiar with, I gave the first book a try. I was pleasantly surprised by the combination of warmth and seriousness that Alexandra McCall Smith brought to his stories about Mma "Precious" Ramotswe.Precious decides to go into business as a private detective after her no-good abusive husband leaves her. Mens' violence against women and the extreme sexism of African culture is a common thread running through the book, which, while probably realistic, made me a little suspicious of yet another white guy writing about how badly those non-white people in some other country treat their women. However, I didn't feel that Smith was being patronizing in his depiction of Botswanan culture. Precious is proud of being African, and while she has something of a chip on her shoulder when it comes to men (not without justification), she's a very humane and very sharp person, with friends who are men and women alike.This book isn't really a full-length novel, more of a series of short stories and vignettes about Precious, her life before and after starting her detective agency, and life in Botswana.Men frequently ask Precious, "Who ever heard of a female detective?" to which she retorts "Haven't you ever heard of Agatha Christie?" Most of her first cases are not exactly the sort you'd see Miss Marple taking on. Women who suspect their husbands of cheating (which, according to Precious, all men do), a strict father who believes his teenage daughter is running around town with a boyfriend, and an old doctor friend of hers who needs to find out what's going on with one of his colleagues. However, Precious slowly starts brushing up against more serious criminals, and a witch doctor who might be responsible for abducting and killing a child, and who has ties to some very powerful men.Some of the short pieces are funny, some are beautiful in their description of Botswana and the land and people whom Precious loves so much, and some are sad. This isn't a "cozy" — besides cheating husbands, lazy con men, and the Case of the Disobedient Teenager, there is also rape, racism, poverty, and corruption. But it's a charming and likable book that's mostly optimistic despite the bitter parts. I don't know that I'm in love enough to go read the entire series, but I can certainly see myself picking up more volumes when I want some light reading. 3.5 stars.
What do You think about The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (2003)?
This book is written in a style where it's not clear whether the narrator is just being very understated, or whether the characters are all just kinda simple-minded. I love that style in Daniel Pinkwater when he's writing about New Jersey, but I feel reservations about it when it's a white guy (even one raised in southern Africa) writing about Africa.Granted, when the narrator makes sweeping generalizations about Africa as a whole (which happens a number of times), they are generally positive (except when the subject is traditional healers, who show up only as kidnappers or worse).I guess, if I want to learn something nuanced about Africa from fiction, I should get off my butt and find a writer currently dwelling in Africa.
—Zab
A series of unrelated and predictably boring mysteries are solved in a predictably boring fashion by a really unboring detective.I went back and forth on this a lot. It has a certain light-handed charm; this is a very simple narration with unexpected flashes of emotion beneath, and the protagonist has that unbending quality of people who don't break under grief because it simply wouldn't occur to them. But then again, I think I learned maybe three things about Botswana that I didn't already know, and let's be real here, I don't know that much. Fiction doesn't have to teach me something to be good, but if it is set in an unfamiliar cultural milieu and I don't learn much, something has gone awry. And the real problem – this book is written in that particular distanced third omniscient which renders people less transparent, rather than more. You know, that thing where you spend a book watching people do things and catching edges of their thoughts, but it all has that quality of watching ants in an ant farm under glass. One of my least favorite stylistic choices, basically.
—Lightreads
I love this series. More about relationships and life than mysteries.The characters are just so real, people I actually wish I knew. It's full of warm friendly humor. She solves her cases with common sense and woman's intuition. I remember one favorite scene. Mma Ramotswe is interviewing a client. She is a woman of "traditional build". She thinks to herself that the woman she is speaking to needs to admit her girth and buy a larger size dress. McCall Smith then moves to the point of view of the client and she is thinking the exact same thing about Mma Ramotswe.
—Beth A.
