THE NO. 1 LADIES’ DETECTIVE AGENCY – Book 1Fans around the world adore the best-selling No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series and its proprietor, Precious Ramotswe, Botswana’s premier lady detective. In this charming series, Mma Ramotswe—with help from her loyal associate, Grace Makutsi—navigates her cases and her personal life with wisdom, good humor, and the occasional cup of tea.This first … of tea.
This first novel in Alexander McCall Smith’s widely acclaimed The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series tells the story of the delightfully cunning and enormously engaging Precious Ramotswe, who is drawn to her profession to “help people with problems in their lives.” Immediately upon setting up shop in a small storefront in Gaborone, she is hired to track down a missing husband, uncover a con man, and follow a wayward daughter. But the case that tugs at her heart, and lands her in danger, is a missing eleven-year-old boy, who may have been snatched by witchdoctors.
The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency received two Booker Judges’ Special Recommendations and was voted one of the International Books of the Year and the Millennium by the Times Literary Supplement.
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Mma Ramotswe, the main character, is interesting and entertaining. An undercurrent of integrity and honesty runs through the entire book. I found the information about the African culture in Botswana interesting. I was surprised that a white male author could write such a convincing black female protagonist.
I have loved every book in this series. MMS Ramotswe is so grounded an down to earth. I have enjoyed spending time with all of the characters. It is soft and mellowing. I always feel better and feel like a better person when I read these. They are in fact the antithesis of action packed, scary, tense.
Just love everything about this book. The characters, the plot. Brilliantly observed and epic story-telling throughout.
I found this book very interesting because of the strength and determination of the main character.
“Everything has been something before,” said Mma Precious Ramotswe in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. As true for her as it is for the author. Alexander McCall Smith is a British-Zimbabwean national who was a respected medical and bioethics lawyer before becoming a world-famous author — not shabby at all.
In an interview with Maclean’s magazine in 2010, Alexander shared his writing method and how it shapes his message. He related how whenever he had tried writing novels with a pen, his writing was stilted, but it just flows when he types on the computer. It is interesting how an author’s mind works: how personal quirks shape how they write their characters. Whether the medium is dictation, cursive, or keyboards, it can often change which part of the brain authors tap into for creative expression. In this case, McCall Smith prefers sitting in front of a computer hammering out thousands of words a day, fingers clacking across its keys like a pianist. His writing is crisp (thanks to Matt Pechey for this great word), and “traditionally built,” like Mma Ramotswe herself, who dispenses wisdom on “the right approach to life” — but with a Botswana flair. McCall Smith’s books are not long, which fits his style. Brevity might be a virtue to him, as it is with his sensible heroine. To some degree, this makes me think he would appreciate one of Elmore Leonard’s rules of writing, “if it sounds like writing, rewrite it.” Or if he preferred the advice of more hardened writers, “kill your darlings.”
Readers of intense suspense, thrillers, and horror mysteries, if a slow character burn is not your style, this book might not be for you.
In the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, McCall Smith debuts his 34-year-old heroine by sharing the “something before” of her life. Going back to her birth and her father’s life, Obed Ramotswe, the author takes us on a journey of how Mma Ramotswe grows up to gain wisdom, from her mother’s death to the loss of a surrogate mother to a husband who became her abuser before abandoning her. With subsequent losses, one more tragic than the rest, her wisdom only increases, and fortunately, her optimism remains.
Once free of the bonds of her past, Mma Ramotswe blossoms, and she becomes the sensible crime fighter she is, but in her way, in a male-dominated country where the nature of crime is very personal and familial. The facts of the crimes that Mma Ramotswe solves seem less important than deciphering characters’ psychology from their eyes and faces. It’s a change of pace for a modern reader, who might read book after book whose thrill factor (or horrific nature of the fictional crime) must get more shocking to keep our attention.
If you want a change, try a clean mystery with heart. Check it out.
Warning! This series (and his other ones) are definitely addictive.
Highly recommended.
First installment of a long-running series. A wonderful introduction to interesting, likable characters.
Loved this book and the whole series!
As this is the first in a series, it has incomplete but charming characters and an open-ended plot. While the story is for the most part open ended, the mystery is solved by the end of the book. This is a fast and fun read. Mind candy at its most charming.
the way the protagonist must operate, because she’s a woman, is … oh, i can’t think of the word … original comes to mind, but not the word i originally wanted. you’ll enjoy
A great story well told! I love the insight and understanding so simply and beautifully said – reflecting the human mind and soul.
This book is about a woman in Botswana who opens up her own detective agency.
Charming!
I have no idea why people like these books.
Fun book to read.
I could not get into this book. Maybe I’ll try again later.
Loved this book. Have read whole series. Description of Botswana is so real.Mama Ramotswe is amazing
Smith was born in Zimbabwe and was a professor of law in Botswana; his abiding love for the land is apparent in every volume of the series. The reader is drawn to the characters and the storylines, but the dominant draw is the land itself. Botswana is described as a place where people still greet one another as neighbors, a land where the simple pleasures are celebrated. At the close of each work, Smith writes Afrika, Afrika, Afrika, Afrika, Afrika, as if it is the beat of his own heart.
Enjoyed the characters and location. The mysteries were good too. Great composition: parts poignant, parts funny, parts memorable.
Fun book.