The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

by

Paperback, 235 pages

English language

Published Dec. 14, 2002 by Anchor Books.

ISBN:
978-1-4000-3477-2
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OCLC Number:
53059952

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3 stars (3 reviews)

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.From the Trade Paperback edition.

12 editions

reviewed The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith (No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series)

Review of "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

This book was completely different from what I expected. When I picked it up, I expected a mystery novel set in Botswana, maybe Agatha Christie style? I was wrong, and that's not a bad thing.

Our protagonist is Precious Ramotswe, a woman in her mid-30s, a big African lady. With money she inherits from her dad, she decides to open the first and only Ladies' Detective Agency in Botswana. We get to follow her story as she slowly gets more customers and solves cases.

Each chapter is pretty much self-contained, the novel is not about any single case. In some chapters we get backstory, like her father working in the mines in South Africa in the 60s, or Precious' unhappy marriage to a viciously abusive jazz musician husband. Above all, we get a glimpse of life in Botswana, and the main character's abiding love for her country and continent, despite …

reviewed The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith (No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series)

Review of "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" on 'LibraryThing'

2 stars

Given how popular this book seems to be, I was surprised at how long it took me to warm to it. At times the deliberate simplicity of the writing was engaging and light, but at times it also seemed annoyingly patronising to the characters and their culture. Most of the chapters stand alone as fairly self-contained stories, and the highlights were clever little tales in which someone with a little common sense (usually the lady detective of the title, but not always) proves smarter than some people who society would hold to be their 'better'. But really almost all of the little stories do the same thing, so it gets rather repetitive and the chaff ends up detracting from the wheat.



I think this book could be cut up and 3 or 4 chapters made into lovely short stories for an anthology, but the rest left me rather disappointed.

avatar for kyonshi@bookrastinating.com

rated it

3 stars

Subjects

  • Ramotswe, Precious (Fictitious character) -- Fiction.
  • No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (Imaginary organization) -- Fiction.
  • Women private investigators -- Botswana -- Fiction.
  • Botswana -- Fiction.

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