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The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
Alexander McCall Smith
Abacus 2003 [1998]
250 pages
A book review by Danny Yee
http://dannyreviews.com/h/Ladies_Detective_Agency.html
When her father dies, Precious Ramotswe sells the hundred and eighty
cattle she inherits and sets up as Botswana's only female private
detective. _The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency_ is the first of what
are now five books about her, and Smith seems to have written it with
a series in mind. After a brief opening "micro-mystery", it sets the
background, telling the story of Precious Ramotswe's father, who got his
start working in the mines, and describing her childhood, her disastrous
marriage, and the setting up of her detective agency. And when jobs
start coming in, there's no one big mystery to hold everything together,
but rather a variety of cases: a missing husband, a wayward teenager
daughter, a strangely behaving doctor, and a kidnapped boy.
There are several things that make _The No. 1 Ladies' Detective
Agency_ entrancing. There is Precious herself, who is human in her
uncertainties and doubts and has a background and skills quite unlike
any other fictional detective. There's Smith's lively prose and his
understated but effective humour. And there's the fascination of the
setting -- Gaborone and the Kalahari, witchcraft and crocodiles, and
the rhythms of ordinary Botswanan life. The result is a refreshingly
original addition to the detective fiction genre.
--
%T The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
%A Smith, Alexander McCall
%I Abacus
%C London
%D 2003 [1998]
%O paperback
%G ISBN 0-349-11675-X
%P 250pp
%K detective fiction, Africa
%Z Botswana's only female private investigator at work
1 October 2003
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Copyright (c) 2003 Danny Yee http://danny.oz.au/
Danny Yee's Book Reviews http://dannyreviews.com/
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