Book info

• Title The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
• Author Alexander McCall Smith
• Year 1998
• Genre Mystery

Mma Ramotswe is the proud proprietor of the finest ladies' detective agency in all Botswana (also the only one). She spends her time, with a cup of redbush tea beneath the acacia tree, waiting for clients. When they come along, whether it is to enquire after a missing spouse or check the identity of a long-lost father, it is not The Principles of Private Detection that helps her to solve cases but old-fashioned common sense and a warm-hearted understanding of the fallibility of human nature - especially that of men.

Thoughts

Somehow I have not managed to read any of these detective agency stories, even though I know they are immensely popular, and there was a TV show made recently as well. However, the first of the series was in the recent Kindle sale so I snapped it up and set about reading.

I’m so glad I finally found my way to read all about Mma Ramotswe’s adventures. There’s something so gentle and endearing about both the character and the way the stories are told, and yet it’s so different to anything I’ve read and the world I live in; it was a bizarre mixture.

I loved it though. From start to finish, I was captivated. My only bugbear was the way the backstory felt shoehorned in, but all the history itself was fascinating and set up the character in her current situations perfectly. A brilliant book, like indulging in some old family tales told in a gentle and unhurried fashion, I have the second in the series on my wishlist already.

Rating: 4 / 5